Cell's Breakout
by KASH
Summary: Soon after his death, Cell is taken from the H.F.I.L., and returned to the Mortal World against his will...but not quite as the Cell we all know and 'love'. Now he must start anew...as a 15 year old teenage GIRL! But will things go as planned?
1. Chapter 1

セ ル の ブ レ イ ク ア ウ ト  
- C e l l ' s B r e a k o u t -

Author's Note: I don't own any of the regular characters you'd find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z. They are copyright of Akira Toriyama. Anyone else is MINE! As in, they were spawned from MY creative genius…or not so genius, either or. Got it? Good. This takes place after the Cell Saga/before OtherWorld Tournament Saga and it's sort of weird, but a good read I suppose. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

Prologue : Long Hard Road Outta Hell

* * *

It had been almost two weeks.

Two weeks since Cell--the infamous Monster of Nikkietown, the diabolical destroyer, the soul greatest achievement of the ingenious Dr. Gero, in which had ravaged the Earth and sent the entire planet into complete terror and chaos in his wake--was defeated. Defeated no less, by a boy. A boy who happened to be none other than the half-saiyan Son Gohan--and sent to the OtherWorld, to the "Home For Infinite Losers".

But knowing that his purposes had never been fully extracted, the need to destroy and seek revenge for his untimely demise boiling in his veins, he had attempted an escape by creating an unlikely (and in theory _temporary_) union with Frieza, his father King Cold, and the dead Ginyu Force members.

But this escape was in vain, as well as rather fool-hardy, for the one that Cell himself had sent prior to his own defeat to meet his maker, the saiyan Son Goku, and another strange fighter of unknown origins known as Pikkon made a swift appearance as soon as King Yemma had caught wind of the condemned villains' plans.

They were made short work of--and all of them thrown together into a horridly small and cramped prison cell.

And that is where the diabolical bio-android Cell remained for those two tedious weeks--diligently trying to think up yet another ingenious and skillful escape.

"Tch… There has to be some feasible way to get out of this horrid prison," Cell said to himself as he sat with legs crossed on the tower of folded blankets in the corner, his voice dripping with venom as he glared hatefully at the line of thick black bars keeping him trapped in this godforsaken place.

Frieza looked over at him agitatedly from his spot in the opposite corner. "Would you give it a rest already? It's pretty obvious we're all stuck here, and it would be a lot more tolerable if you _stopped whining_," he snapped, narrowing his crimson eyes.

"Silence," Cell said simply, continuing his angry stare at the line of bars, resting his chin on his hand. "And for the record, you impudent short-stop, I am _not_ whining."

Frieza shot him a look for that "short-stop" quirk, but only rolling his eyes, leaning back lazily against the wall behind him and crossing his arms behind his head, his tale thumping back and forth with agitation.

"Oh my poor nails! This horridly filthy place is ruining my manicure!" King Cold fretted as he looked at them with a pout. "Oh how can people _live_ this way!"

Guldo looked up from his hand of cards and blinked his many eyes a couple times. "Well if you want to get technical, we're all dead. So we're not exactly _living_ this way.."

King Cold let out a wail and clung onto the line of bars desperately. Jeice looked up from his own hand of cards, as did Burter, and blinked twice at their leader's sire, then to their leader himself. Frieza had an evident scowl on his face, his cheeks tinted a little, possibly out of embarrassment. The two Ginyu Force members looked back at one another, blinked twice, and then back down to their cards, deciding it best not to comment.

"If I win this hand I want someone's food!" Recoome said abruptly. "I'm getting hungry…"

"R'coome, none ov us have any food," Jeice said, giving him a deadpan look.

"But I'm hungry!"

Jeice's eyebrow twitched slightly. "So?"

Recoome looked down at him hungrily, and Jeice became a little nervous under the gaze.

"Oy…st-stop lookin' at me like that!"

"_I'm hungryyyyy.._"

"F-fine fine!" Jeice piped up. "If you win you get our food! Just stop lookin' at me like that!"

Recoome gave a wide grin and went back to focusing his attentions on his cards.

"The least they could do is give me a drink with…with one of those little umbrellas or something…" King Cold mused with a pout, still pressed up against the bars.

Frieza bowed his head further, a snarl curling up his lips, refraining from giving his annoyance of a father a possible head injury. "It…would be…nice…wouldn't it?"

"Yes it would…" King Cold fretted, and looked longingly past the bars, over the nearby cliff edge to see other damned souls and such frolicking (or at least considered to _be_ frolicking in his warped sense of terminology) about in H.F.I.L.'s wasteland among the ever-watchful ogres.

"Oh sweet freedom…so close, and yet so far.."

Frieza sighed irritably. At least all his gender-confused father was doing was musing…better that trying to give him and all his lowly minions pedicures…again.

"Read 'em and weep, boys! Four aces!" Guldo practically cackled.

"Go fish!" Recoome called, and beamed.

"Er, Recoome….We're not playing Go Fish…" said Burter.

Recoome blinked. "…But I thought I won…"

Jeice leaned over and looked at Recoome's hand of cards, and raised an eyebrow. "Eh…'fraid not R'coome ol buddy."

Recoome looked down at him dangerously. "I want my food. I'm hungry."

"Easy there big guy… Remember, you can get the food when you win," Burter said, trying to keep the giant amongst them at bay.

Recoome looked down at Guldo, an evil gleam in his eye. Guldo, after a moment, looked back up at him nervously. "Uh….Recoome..?"

"RAAH!" Recoome dived on him, and Guldo let out a terrified shriek, cards flying up into the air. "If I can't win, then I'm eating YOU!"

"The hunger's made him mad! MAAAAAAD!" Guldo screamed, squirming frantically in Recoome's grasp.

"Would you all be QUIET!" Cell growled menacingly, though he continued to keep his piercing magenta eyes locked onto the line of bars.

"Why should we? It's yer fault we're in here in the first place!" Jeice snapped, wrinkling his nose at Cell in a defiant gesture. "I mean, Hell, it was _yer_ idea to try bustin' outta here, smart ass!"

Cell gave him an ominous side-glance, his eyes glinting with more than a hint of malice. Jeice let out a small "eep" and quickly proceeded to scoot back to the farthest wall away from the android, looking a little worried now about what he had said, and what Cell might do to him. Cell was, after all, the strongest and most devious of them, not to mention he was a complete and utter sociopath.

Cell simply let out a short, though agitated sigh and closed his eyes again, trying to regain his concentration.

Four hours passed...Five hours passed...Six hours passed, and Cell still wasn't receiving any sort of revelation in a way of possible escape.

Frieza was sleeping, small droplets of drool occasionally sliding down his lips; Burter was staring blankly off into space, a dazed look in his red eyes, and Jeice was drawing something in the dust on the floor with his gloved fingers, giggling maniacally as he did so--which left Guldo and Recoom, who were playing an innocent game of patty cake.

"Patty Cake, patty cake..." the two sang, clapping along in rhyme. "...bake me a cake as fast as you can!"

The corner of Cell's eye began to twitch, and he was tempted with the thought of blasting them to the next plane beyond, but decided against it in case they had future escape potentials. And besides, they'd be bored of that childish pre-school game in not too long...

But after about two hours more, the thought of potentially _stopping_ hadn't seemed to even phase through Guldo nor Recoom's minds.

"...and then put it in the oven for you and me! Patty cake, patty cake..."

Suddenly, Cell sprang up on his tower of blankets and began to laugh melodramatically, raising his arms up in the air.

Recoom and Guldo stopped their play and looked up at him quizzically.

"Gwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Cell laughed, a corny expression on his face. He jumped down next to a wall, pressed his hands on it, and began to bang his head on the brick surface.

Jeice leaned around the blankets to see what was happening, eyebrows furrowed.

Guldo jumped into Recoom's arms. "Ah! He's scaring me!" he shrieked.

Burter snapped out of his trance and backed away from his insane cell-mate.

Frieza sheepishly rubbed his eyes, having awoken from his sleep, and stood. He gazed over at Cell with a grumpy expression, curling his lip. "I knew it wasn't gonna take long for _him_ to crack," he muttered under his breath.

Cell continued to bonk his head on the wall, sending and unpleasant _crunch_ to echo through the area every now and then.

After a few more minutes of this, Jeice finally stood and bounced over to Cell. "Ay, wat do ya think yer doin'?" he questioned.

Cell pulled away from the wall and stopped for a moment to explain, not turning to face Jeice, staring deeply into the muddy bricks. "Well, since I'm dead, I thought that _if_ I manage to kill myself I'll just automatically come back to life!" he finished, and, not even waiting for Jeice to reply, started to hit his head on the wall again.

Jeice raised a hand up, but Frieza's reply stopped him. "Don't bother him. Maybe with all of that pounding he'll manage to break through," he chuckled. Jeice gave a faint nod and backed up a step.

"I never would have thought that _he'd_ be the first to go crazy," Burter croaked.

"_Crazy_? The guy's gone and lost his marbles!" Guldo squealed.

Cell reared back his head, pausing for a second, his fingertips pressed lightly against the cold brick. Then, with all the force in his body he could muster, Cell rammed his skull into the thick wall as hard as he could; he ricocheted forcefully backward, and stopped himself jerkily.

He stood there for a few seconds, looking dizzy, blinking rapidly, and he raised up his finger and pointed it as if to say something. "Graaavvy..." he mumbled; his eyes rolled back and he quickly fell to the floor.

"Is he...dead?" Burter questioned, looming over the unconscious Cell along with his fellow Ginyu Force members.

"Hel-lo! He's already dead," Recoom sassed, shooting him a look.

"Oh yeah. Sorry, it's a habit," Burter replied.

"Any body in there?" Guldo whispered, waving a hand over Cell's face.

Cell suddenly gasped, his eyes flying wide open, a shudder immediately going through his whole body.

Everyone let out a small shriek and jumped back in surprise.

Cell blinked, and brought a hand up to his head. "Uhhg..."

Burter and Jeice leaned back over Cell. "Now, how many fingers do you see?" asked Burter, holding up three of his fingers.

Cell glanced lazily up at him. "Th...Thirty-six..." he groaned, wobbling slightly.

Jeice stared up at the ceiling in thought. "I think that's close enough," he concluded. He bent down behind Cell and hoisted the android up, holding him under his arms.

As soon as Cell was up to his feet, Jeice let go so he could regain his bearings.

Cell gazed around the room dizzily. "Oh...Look at all the pretty colors..." he mumbled and stumbled back down again.

Jeice caught him quickly and held him back up. "_No_, we havta keep ya _up_," he said. Jeice kept Cell on his feet for a few moments until he finally snapped out of his dizziness.

"Uh...Thanks..." he muttered groggily.

"Oy, no prablem," Jeice smiled, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh—if I _ever_ try doing anything like that again, stop me," Cell added.

Jeice nodded.

Frieza chuckled under his breath, shaking his head.

Cell, who heard him, glared at him agitatedly. "What's so funny?" he snapped.

Frieza rolled his eyes. "How incredibly _dumb_ you're acting," he snickered.

"Oh shut up," Cell growled, glaring.

"Make me," Frieza taunted, glaring back.

"That's IT!" Cell screeched. He leapt at Frieza and began to pound him viciously into the brick floor.

"Hey! You can't do that to our leader!" Recoom yelled, jumping into the fight.

Guldo looked at Jeice, Jeice looked back, then up at Burter, Burter in return looking down to Jeice. They all shrugged and jumped into the scramble.

A moment later, two large men ran up to the prison cell. One was red skinned with slick black hair and thick glasses, two horns sticking out of his skull. The other had blue skin, feathery purple hair, and a single horn on top of his head. They were both carrying large clubs and wore shorts and shirts that bore the letters _HFIL_.

"Hey! Break it up in there!" the red one squawked, stomping over to the cell. He thrust out his club and bonked one of the fighters, who just happened to be Cell, right on the noggin.

Cell immediately stopped, grabbed his already hurting head, and cried out in pain.

The rest instantly halted, spreading apart to different parts of the cell.

Cell gave the guard a nefarious snarl. He bolted up at him, grabbing his shirt collar, and thrust him up to the bars. "Why you little..." he hissed.

Before the guard was able to finish, Cell was clobbered on the skull yet again with a large club. Dumbfounded, he dropped the guard on the ground, fell onto his back, and gave a long moan of pain and frustration while grasping his head.

"You OK?" the blue guard asked, furrowing his brow.

His comrade nodded. "Yeah. Thanks." He got to his feet and brushed the dirt off his shorts. "C'mon. Let's go," he said after a moment, giving the prisoners a quick glare.

The blue guard nodded, and the two of them turned and walked away.

* * *

"Mistress. We have news of the possible user." 

"Ahh? What have you learned of him?"

"Dora and I were able to find him quickly. It appears he is very anxious to leave. He even tried to kill himself to escape."

"To think a creature such as he would turn to those sort of inane methods."

"Nayome, Dora, retrieve him. He must be sent soon, or the entire balance of the system will be thrown off. Do you understand?"

"Yes, mistress."

"Are you sure your brother will not object to this, mistress?"

"...My brother does not concern this. He has always hated my line of work since we parted ways. His concerns became those of the living, and mine with dead. We do not reveal any of this to anyone, understood?"

"Understood."

"No…I plan on having fun with this one. I want to take an entirely different approach…"

"Yes, mistress."

* * *

"Ya think he's all right?" Jeice asked, scratching the back of his head. 

"I dunno. He's been sittin' there for three days straight," Recoom mumbled.

"Yeah. All he's done is stare at that same spot on the floor," Guldo agreed, nodding.

Burter shook his head, casting a sympathetic look. "Poor guy."

"I almost feel sorry for him," Frieza grumbled, loosely crossing his arms and glaring off to the side.

"Oh, son, give it a rest. He's obviously depressed," King Cold urged, giving his son a nudge with his elbow.

"...Don't touch me," his son hissed up at him.

Cell sat in a corner of the prison cell, elbows resting on his knees, staring at the floor. He wasn't entirely depressed--more like frustrated to the point of forgetting rational thought.

He just couldn't stand it. Being stuck in that damed cell another minute with those pathetic Neanderthals--while that...that whelp who'd killed him was probably living it up to the fullest back on Earth. Damn that...that stupid half-bred brat! It made his syntheticly-engineered blood boil at just the thought of it.

Oooh, what he _wouldn't've _done to get back there and kick that sorry so-and-so's--

"Cell."

Cell straightened up and jerked his head toward the direction of the voice that called his name.

A tall woman wearing a long, hooded cloak stood on the outside of the cell. Her face was concealed in the darkness of the hood pulled over her head, but Cell could see a slight green tone in her skin color.

"You wish to leave this place, yes?" she whispered.

Cell got to his feet and shuffled over to the strange visitor. "What do you mean?" he asked, giving her an odd look of curiosity and doubt.

"I can get you out, if you wish," she replied, lowering her voice so only he could hear.

Cell raised an eyeridge.

"But there is one condition..."

His eyeridges realighned downward again.

Just as Cell was about to through out a sarcastic retort, but before he had the chance, two large ogres zoomed past through the air behind the cloaked woman, and crashed headfirst into a wall at the far end of the hallway of cells.

Another woman phased out of thin air, and landed down beside Cell's visitor. She too was adorned with a hooded cloak, but her skin was blue in color.

"Have you two reached a verdict? Time is running out--Yemma will be onto us if we don't get out of here soon," she said hurriedly, facing her comrade.

The first woman turned back to Cell, as if she were anticipating an answer.

"Oy! Who are the cuties?" Jeice chirped, trotting over to the bars, smirking.

"Nayome, would you take care of them? This kind of thing tends to be your area of expertise," the green woman said with somewhat of a giggly tone.

"My pleasure," the second woman said with a perky chime. She set her hand up to the bars, then ran her finger swiftly across. Everyone except Cell was instantly thrown backwards into the prison wall, and fell to the floor unconscious.

"So, what's it going to be?" she asked, a hint of red gleaming forth from her eyes underneath the dark shadows cast from her hood.

Cell took a step back from the bars, crossing his arms. "Are you _mad_? I'm not so easily amused by your tricks—I'm not going anywhere with you _absurd _women."

The two women looked to each other, then back to the bio-android.

"So sorry you don't think so," the first replied.

"It is imperative that you come with us," said the other. She raised her hand up to Cell's face from between the bars, quickly fluttered her fingers hypnotically around his nose. Cell's hot magenta eyes rolled backwards into his skull, and he fell backwards onto the stone floor.

The blue woman phased through the bars, and stepped over to Cell. She picked him up roughly by his arm and swung him awkwardly up onto her back, holding his wrists under her neck.

"That was too easy," she chuckled to her friend.

The green woman nodded, phazing through the prison bars as well and over to her parnter's side. "So it would seem, Nayome. But now let's depart before any more guards arrive," she replied.

"All right, Dora," the blue woman agreed.

In a faint shimmer of light, Cell and the two mysterious women quickly disappeared.

* * *

Slowly, Cell began to open his heavy eyelids. 

His vision was extremely blurry, and his head was throbbing.

"Great. Just what I need—another headache," he groaned.

Cell lazily lifted up his head to take in his surroundings.

Wherever he was, it was dark. There was some light, shining somewhere far off, but he couldn't tell where exactly.

Cell shook his head, his sight beginning to return. He tried to move his arms, but something held them tightly up above his head.

Cell stared above him.

Two blue disks were around his wrists, which wouldn't let him budge an inch, despite how hard he tried.

"This really isn't my day..." he sighed.

"So, you're finally awake."

Cell's two mysterious captors stepped out of the shadows, hoods still drawn over their heads.

"Who are you! And what am I doing here!" Cell snarled as soon as he saw them, flashing his teeth at them ferociously.

"I believe _I_ can explain that."

The two women instantly fell to one knee, staring downward.

Another, yet shorter woman stepped forth from the darkness. Her skin was a lavender tone, and she long elfish-like ears, along with white spiky hair springing up in all sorts of odd directions. Her bizarre apparel consisted of a light blue, short-sleeved dress that draped almost to her knees with a white, high-collared, long-sleeved blouse underneath it, off-white tights, slightly oversized boots matching the color of her dress, and a deep red shawl tied around her waist.

But the most startling feature about her, Cell thought, were her mesmerizing black eyes, which seemed as though they could stare right down into your soul.

She walked up to the android and gazed up into his eyes, a smile dancing on her lips. "Dora, Nayome, you have done your job well. Now would you please excuse us—I'd like a word," she said, not turning to face her associates.

"Yes, my lady," the two replied in unison, quickly getting to their feet and vanishing without another word.

"What a strange creature you are!" the woman giggled, eyeing Cell over keenly, a wide grin spread upon her cheeks.

Cell curled up his lip. _Well, I could certainly say the same,_ he thought, narrowing his eyes at the strange woman.

"That you could," she said, her smile broadening.

Cell's eyes widened, staring at the woman with an expression of disbelief and confusion.

"Allow me to introduce myself," she said, giving a curt little curtsey. "I am the seventh kai—the Kai of Reincarnation and Rebirth. My name is Sita."

Cell wasn't exactly sure where she was getting at, or if it even had anything to do with him, but he kept listening intently anyway.

"You wonder why you are here, do you not?" Sita questioned, cocking her eyebrow. "Well, once every two thousand years, during something calling the Celestrial Occurrence, someone from the Other World is chosen to be reborn into the mortal world. This must be done is secret, however. Due to...miscalculated complications."

An awkward silence filled the chamber; Cell stared at the kai strangely, looking at her as though she must have been completely out of her mind. Sita gazed into Cell's eyes, looking as though she was anticipating some kind of answer.

Suddenly, realization donned on the android. "You mean...I'm next?" Cell questioned, his eyes wide.

"Dr. Gero did program you with plenty of intelligence, android. That he did," Sita chirped. "So now that you understand your destiny, I shall send you on your way."

Sita gave another offhand curtsey—Cell's restraints instantly vanished, making him to fall to the floor—and she disappeared.

Cell was left completely alone.

"Hey! Who said I agreed to any of this!" Cell shouted into the empty blackness, getting to his feet, searching around desperately for anyone his sights could catch. He stomped one foot on the floor angrily and sighed heavily.

Almost immediately, a small ball of white light suddenly appeared right in front of Cell's face, catching him completely off-guard and, with a small yelp, he fell again onto his backside.

After recovering from the shock, Cell jumped back up and stared at it curiously, edging slowly up to it. As soon as he was close enough, he carefully cupped the tiny orb inside his hands and gazed into it.

Just barely visible was the form of a little girl with green and black striped hair sitting on stone steps in front of some apartment house. Tears were streaming down her rosy pink cheeks, and she tried her best to hastily wipe them away.

For one solid moment, Cell actually felt a minuscule amount of pity for her.

All of a sudden, the glowing ball began to violently shake in his hands, rays of light shooting out in all directions, spreading to all reaches of the chamber.

Cell leapt back from it, covering his eyes from the blinding light.

After the light finally subsided and withdrew, Cell was nowhere to be seen.

"Step one—complete."

"Yes, mistress."

* * *

"WHAT!" King Yemma screamed on the top of his lungs. 

"Like I said, sir. Two women came outa nowhere and beat up all the guards. Next thing we know, Cell's gone," said a small red ogre in a black business suit with a writing board and a pencil.

King Yemma threw his hands up into the air. "Oh, of all things! This just had to happen!"

"Uh, sir?" the man squeaked, pointing his pencil at him. "We have reason to believe that the two kidnappers...were some of Sita's followers."

"WHAT!" King Yemma screeched again.

"Y-yes sir. Absolutely sure," the short man stuttered, rearranging his thick glasses.

King Yemma leaned back in his chair and rested his head in his hand, looking furious.

"Wonderful! Of all people, it had to be Cell. Honestly, Sita's the craziest kai of them all," he groaned.

He looked back down at his informer, nodded, and the small ogre quickly scurried out of the room.

"Just like her, too. Always doing this sort of thing behind my back," the lord of the dead sighed, ruffling his thick fingers through his hair. "Her brother's gonna kill her."

At that very moment, the Supreme Kai stormed into the room, smashing the huge doors into the walls as he flung them open, shaking with anger.

King Yemma jumped in his chair. "Oh, heh, S-Supreme Kai...!" he smiled weakly.

"Spare me the trouble—_where's my sister_!" the kai growled, glaring daggers.

King Yemma scratched the back of his head. "Well, to be perfectly honest with you, I haven't known where she's been for the past...oh, five _billion_ years..."

"How about I just get this over with and let you two yell at me now rather than later," Sita groaned, quickly appearing behind her brother.

The Supreme Kai spun around and glared at her hatefully. "Sita, have you any idea what you've done!" he snarled.

Sita patted him lightly on the cheek, a smile breaking across her lips. "Aw, come off it, little brother," she giggled antagonistically, cocking her head to the side.

Here it comes... King Yemma thought, and hastily ducked under his desk.

The Supreme Kai's face flushed red with anger. "That's it, Sita! You just can't seem to get it, can you! You're even more of a threat to the universe than Majin Buu! Oh sure, you think it'll 'upset the system', but in reality you're just a pest!" he screamed into his sister's face.

Sita glared back at him. "Oh yeah? At least I try to keep the universe in one piece! When Bibidi and Majin Buu were wreaking havoc, all you ever did was try to 'regroup and form battle strategies' as entire galaxies were being blown to bits! So you tell me, who's the pest! Huh, who!" Sita screeched.

"That has nothing to do with this," the Supreme Kai replied coldly, crossing his arms in a huff.

His sister took a deep breath to calm herself. "Well, let me ask you this, what's the big deal anyway?" she questioned, putting her hands on her hips.

The Supreme Kai about jumped through the roof.

"My GOSH! What do you think! You have just reincarnated Cell, the one who nearly destroyed Earth, back into the Mortal World! Not only that, but on the very planet he tried to destroy! He'll kill them all!" he screamed.

"You forget, _dear brother_, that he has been reincarnated as a human. He wouldn't have a chance if he tried to leave the planet," Sita reminded.

"Still, Cell will have the power to wipe out all of Earth's inhabitants! Is that what you want!" her brother yelled.

"There are two things I did do to make sure that wouldn't happen, though," Sita butted in.

"_Oh_? Like what," the Supreme Kai snarled.

"For starters, _women_ aren't as aggressive as _men_ are," Sita replied.

"And…your point would be?" her brother questioned.

Sita gave him a wide grin. "Guess."

A dumbfounded look appeared on the Supreme Kai's face. "You mean you...You...You didn't..." he trailed off.

Sita nodded. "That's _right_," she chirped.

"Good Gracious! Sita you've flipped! Reincarnating Cell as a woman!" King Yemma exclaimed. "He'd kill himself!"

"Ah, but that's the beauty of it!" Sita giggled. "He wouldn't _dare_ after he found out."

"Found out what?" the Supreme Kai questioned.

"Remember, Cell is made up of the different cells of the Z fighters. So that means, he could possibly have a weak spot," his sister smirked.

"All right, the suspense is killing me! What did you do now!" King Yemma whined.

Sita gave him an innocent smile, turned, and disappeared.

"You know, Supreme Kai, I will never understand her," King Yemma mumbled.

"Neither will I..." the Supreme Kai groaned.

* * *

Forgive the half-assed job. I was only able to half-edit this chapter. I was running out of time. Middle chapters haven't been edited yet, last chapters have been. I'm sorry for being a slacker. Forgive meeeeee... 

-KASH


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Yeah! Another chapter! Kept you guys in suspense long enough, eh? Well, as I said before—I don't own any of the regular characters you'd find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z. They are copyright of Akira Toriyama. Anyone else is M-I-N-E! Keep in mind there's much more to come! Enjoy!

~KASH

BREE BREE BREE

"Umn..."

BREE BREE BREE

"Oh, shut up...!"

A hand came out from under the sheets and grabbed the annoying alarm clock, ripped it out of its socket in the wall, and hurled it across the room. The clock bashed into the wall on the opposite side of the room and broke into several pieces.

A knocking noise came to the door.

"Cyris?"

No answer.

"Cyris McCoy you get out of bed right now, young lady! You're going to miss the bus!"

Still no answer.

The door opened, and a woman around in her thirties with light brown hair, brown eyes, and red flushed cheeks entered the dark room. She stomped over to the bed, grabbed the covers, and yanked them off forcefully onto the floor.

Her niece, Cyris, a fifteen-year-old girl with green and black striped hair, two long strands on either side of her part dangling over her rosy cheeks, light colored skin, and loose fitting "Knock 'em Till They Drop!" shirt, groaned in exasperation, grabbed the pillow underneath her head, and thrust it over her ears.

"Oh, honestly!" the older woman sighed.

"C'mon, Aunt Laura…Let me sleep just five...more..."

"No! Your breakfast is getting cold!" her aunt yelled, putting her hands on her hips.

Cyris rolled onto her back and uncovered her face, revealing her cold pink eyes that she was barely able to keep open.

"I _hate_ mornings," she grumbled, sitting up and rubbing the sand from her eyes.

Her aunt rolled her eyes, heaving a sigh. "Almost as much as I do. Now hurry up and get out of bed! You don't wanna be late for your first day of Twelfth Grade, do you?" Aunt Laura barked.

Cyris gave her an odd side-glance, eyes halfway open. "Just 'cause I'm supposed to be a genius doesn't mean I have to _act_ like one, auntie," she stated. "I don't know why the Board of Education wants me to go to a different high school, or go up a couple more grade levels."

"We'll talk about this downstairs. You-need-to-get-ready-for-school!" her aunt reminded her, a slight tone of agitation in her voice.

Cyris shrugged. "Right."

Her aunt quickly spun on her heel and walked out of the room.

After a few moments, Cyris managed to trudge downstairs and into the kitchen of her aunt's small apartment house. She now wore a blue army tank top, blue jeans, and dark blue Nike sneakers.

Cyris sat down at the small table, looking as though she were about to fall over and pass out from exhaustion.

"Here," said Laura, putting a fork, a napkin, and a plate of hickory smoked bacon, scrabbled eggs, and thickly buttered toast in front of Cyris. "Hurry up and eat, unless you want to be hungry all day," Cyris's aunt ordered, turning back to the counter.

Cyris picked up the fork and began to munch on the cheesy scrambled eggs.

"Hey, Aunt Laura," she said after a moment, setting her fork down onto her plate.

Her aunt turned. "What?"

Cyris gave a weak smile. "Heh, I'm kinda nervous. Ya know, going to Twelfth Grade. It seems so far up from where I am."

Her aunt sat down across from her, setting down a cup of coffee in a small mug with a teddy bear on the front.

"Oh, don't be nervous. You're a bright young girl and need the best education you can get. Besides, Hercule's _daughter_ goes to that school! You could even be in the same class as her! Won't that be exciting?" Laura piped up, sending her a smile.

Cyris rolled her eyes. "Yeah...I'm hysterical," she muttered, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"What do you have against Hercule and his daughter anyway, Cyris? Hercule's the one who, single-handedly, defeated Cell!" Laura persuaded. "It's not like it's easy enough for an eleven-year-old to do!"

Cyris gave her aunt a cold stare. "I don't think he did," she said curtly.

"You _always_ say that!" her aunt exclaimed, throwing her one of her hands into the air.

"It just seems too unlikely. Cell was more powerful than him," Cyris replied, looking down at her breakfast.

"Oh? So who beat him then?" Laura snapped, cocking her eyebrow, taking a quick sip of her coffee.

"It was one of those other guys that were there," Cyris answered, still staring at her eggs, "One of the guys with the golden hair."

"And how would you even know? You didn't even watch the tournament!" her aunt laughed.

Cyris jerked her gaze at her aunt, narrowing her hot magenta eyes at her.

Her aunt stopped laughing.

Cyris's eyes were glistening with a quiet rage.

Cold and merciless.

The hair prickled on the back of Aunt Laura's neck. "Oh, you know how much I _hate_ it when you look at me that way. Stop it!" she squeaked.

Cyris picked up a piece of bacon and stuffed it into her mouth, turning quickly toward the small window near the front door just barely visible through the kitchen.

Aunt Laura sighed.

"Bus's coming. I better put in my contacts," Cyris suddenly said, jumping out of her chair and running up the stairs.

Her aunt stood from the table and walked to the front door, sipping some of her coffee, and opened it. She poked her head out and looked around the empty street. "Crazy," she mumbled, stepping back inside and closing the door.

Cyris rushed back down the stairs, her eyes now a hazel brown rather than pink, backpack slung lazily over her shoulder.

She trotted over to her Aunt Laura and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Bye!" she chirped, and ran out the door just as the school bus pulled up, and hopping in.

"Good luck, kid," Aunt Laura said, watching the school bus disappear around the curve, and sipped her coffee.

________________________________________________________________________________

"Welcome back, sleepy head," Eresa giggled, sitting down next to her friend, Gohan.

Gohan looked at her with a tired expression. "Mondays—always the _worst_ day of the week," he sighed.

"No kidding!" Eresa laughed, heaving her backpack onto her desk and emptying its contents.

Videl trudged over to them and flopped down next to Eresa, looking extremely frustrated.

"I was chasing that blasted Saiyaman all morning. Lousy baka," she grumbled, dropping her books on her desk with a loud thump.

Gohan bit his lip, turning away to avoid Videl's hateful gaze.

"Oh! Did you two hear?" Eresa suddenly asked, glancing at her two friends.

"Hear about what?" Gohan questioned, turning to the giggly blonde.

"Well, I heard from Joey, who heard from James, who heard from Samantha, who heard from Karla—"

"Get _on_ with it!" Videl growled, obviously getting annoyed.

"Ehe...Sorry. Well, we're gonna get a new student in our class. A transfer," Eresa answered.

"That's weird. We just got Gohan only last week!" Videl exclaimed, pointing her thumb at him.

"Yeah, I know," Eresa agreed, shrugging, "Go fig."

"Do you know who it is?" Gohan asked, cocking his eyebrow.

Eresa shook her head. "Nope."

The tardy bell began chiming through the halls outside the classroom door; a couple late students scurried into the room and into their seats, followed by their teacher, Mr. Bier. He strolled over to his stand in front of the room, and cleared his throat.

"I hope you all had a good weekend, because for the next five days you're all mine," he snickered playfully.

A couple of sarcastic "hoorays" came out of the group of students, but mostly silence followed.

"Very well. Moving on to important business, we have a new student that's actually able to write." Mr. Bier said, and glanced over at the door, nodding.

"Isn't that the exact same thing he said when I came?" Gohan questioned.

Slowly, a skinny girl scurried over to stand next to Mr. Bier. She had green and black hair, two strands longer than the rest dangling over her brown eyes, wearing a blue army tank top, blue jeans, and dark blue Nike sneakers.

Sharpener, who had managed to sneak in late without the teacher noticing, gave a loud whistle.

"Class, this is Miss Cyris McCoy. She just transferred from Juberd Forest High," Mr. Bier informed. "The Board of Education wanted her moved up to the Twelfth Grade because of her high intellect." He turned and gave Cyris a smile. "How high are you classified as—If you don't mind my asking."

Cyris's face took a slight pale tone. "No no! I don't mind," she mumbled. "I'm suppose to be...195."

The students went absolutely silent.

"Heh, it's kinda funny, really. They had to make a whole new group level because of me!" Cyris quickly said, her voice shrinking slightly.

"Looks like this girl Cyris beat you hands down!" Eresa whispered into Gohan's ear.

Gohan didn't have enough force in his body left to reply. He just kept staring disbelieving at the new transfer.

Videl just sat there, bug-eyed. "I didn't think it could go _that_ high," she muttered to herself, blinking.

"Well, uh, why don't you take your seat? You can sit wherever you like," Mr. Bier suggested, giving her a weary smile.

Cyris glanced quickly around the room for any empty seats, grabbing the strap of her backpack.

"Here's one!" a student in the back yelled, standing up and pointing next to him.

Cyris hastily trotted up the steps to the back of the room and sat down at the end of the row, right behind Gohan.

As Mr. Bier turned toward the blackboard and began his lesson, Gohan, in an attempt to be friendly, turned around and smiled at Cyris. "Er, h-hi! My name's—"

"Gohan. Son Gohan, right?" Cyris interrupted, her voice all-knowing.

Videl, Gohan, and Eresa all went wide-eyed.

"How did you know?" Gohan squeaked, still staring at her with huge eyes.

Cyris's face went blank. _Oh crap. I shouldn't've done that!_ Cyris thought.

"Umn…I saw your picture in the Student Directory," she thought up quickly, reaching into her backpack to avoid their gazes.

"How? Ours are suppose to come out next week," Videl snapped, looking at her suspiciously.

__

Oh—for lack of a better word—CRAP!! Why in God's name did I go and say that for?! This just isn't my day! Baka! Cyris cursed at herself. "They already gave me one," she replied nonchalantly.

"Cool," Eresa chirped, giving Cyris a wide grin.

"Hey! Would you juveniles like to share your conversation with the class, or may I continue teaching without interruption?" Mr. Bier croaked, tapping his foot on the carpet covered floor.

Gohan and his friends quickly turned around to face the front of the room.

"Sorry," Gohan laughed weakly, scratching the back of his head.

Their teacher cleared his throat and continued his lesson.

__

That was way too close, Cyris thought. _I've got to be more careful about that. Freaky thing is, I've never seen this guy in my whole life yet the second I meet him, his name suddenly pops into my head...and it's right..._

________________________________________________________________________________

"Now—give up," Goku snarled at his opponent.

Cell simply lowered his head and gave a wide smirk. "No not yet," he said, a snicker in his tone. "It's over when I _say_ it's over."

Cell suddenly summoned up a golden aura around himself, and stood in a fighting stance.

Goku's eyes widened. _Huh? He's concentrating all of his energy into something. What's he up to?_ he thought.

Cell outstretched his arms and lined up his wrists together, fingers curled back.

"Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...meeeeeeeeeeeee..." Cell started, smirking, his eyes shining maniacally.

Krillin, Gohan, and Piccolo gasped, their eyes widening.

"No! You can't put that much power into the Kamehameha! It's too dangerous!" Goku exclaimed.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...mmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

"He'll kill us all!" Vegeta exclaimed in horror.

"HHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" Cell yelled, firing the energy wave instantly toward his saiyan counterpart.

Without a second to spare, Goku lunged into the air, flying high up into the sky.

"Hey Cell!" he yelled down to the bio-android. "Up here!"

Cell quickly redirected the attack up after his challenger, just barely missing the watchers along the ring's edge.

Goku kept flying higher and higher into the sky, leading the blast away from the planet. At the last possible instant, just as his own technique was about to swallow him up, he disappeared, leaving the energy wave racing into the dark reaches of outer space.

Cell, who was still looking toward the sky, was suddenly kicked forcefully in the back, by none other than Goku.

He did a quick flip, pulling himself out of his flight, and landed gracefully on the other ride of the ring, immediately preceding to stare at his competitor with an expression of half awe and disbelief.

"Cell just fired some sort of earth-shattering mega blast at his competitor! Luckily, the nimble newcomer was able to divert the bomb away from the planet! We all owe that guy a big thanks for saving _me_ from certain destruction! Thanks to him, this broadcast will go on! Ooooh the _humanity_!" Joe Firecracker spat into his microphone with a melodramatic tone.

He quickly turned to Herluce, who might as well have been a stone statue. "Hey! What was that?!" he demanded, giving him an odd look of explanation.

Hercule could do nothing but stare at the two fighters in the ring, mouth agape, eyes open wide.

Having no response, the announcer simply cleared his throat and continued. "Our two warriors are still standing so this contest isn't over yet, but if another bomb like that last one goes off it could mean the end of this tournament and _every one of us_!"

***

"Cyris!"

"ACK!! What?!"

"Would you be so kind as to read ze passage in paragraph zree of 'Ze Tell-Tale Heart'? Unless of course you consider _sleeping_ more amusing?" the language arts teacher, Miss Beakman, said in a sarcastic tone, eyeing her agitatedly.

"Oh my—I'm sorry!" Cyris exclaimed, frantically flipping to the right page, and hastily began to read.

________________________________________________________________________________

Gohan rushed over with his lunch tray and sat down next to Eresa and her friends in the cafeteria. "Hey!" he chirped, smiling at her.

"What's up? I haven't seen you since third period," Eresa giggled.

"Same old, same old," Gohan sighed, picking up his fork. He stared at the glob of mess he had on his tray and gave her an odd look.

"What is _this_ stuff?" he groaned, cocking his eyebrow.

"Oh, that? That's a 'Hot Dish'," Videl, who was sitting across from him, answered. "Last Tuesday it was lasagna and Thursday it was spaghetti. Now that it's unrecognizable, it's called a 'Hot Dish'."

Gohan gulped. "Suddenly I don't feel very hungry…"

Meanwhile, Cyris sat alone at the other end of the cafeteria, her eyes fixed intently on Gohan.

__

I know I know him from somewhere. I just can't put my finger down on it, she thought. _God, if I keep staring at him like this someone's gonna notice and think I have a crush on him or something. That would just add the best topping for my "perfect" day._

She picked up her spoon and scooped up a portion of the mush on her lunch tray. "Eck. What the _heck_ is this junk, six day old lasagna?" Cyris complained.

She took a quick sniff of the food and dropped her spoon back down on her tray. "Not in a million years," she grumbled.

"Hey Gohan, I think the new kid's staring at you," Eresa whispered into her friend's ear.

Gohan quickly glanced over in Cyris's direction.

Cyris gasped as she saw Gohan look toward her, turning her head toward the wall.

__

Oh crap, he saw me! Now how am I gonna explain that? This is just getting better and better!

"She is?" he questioned, then gave Eresa somewhat of a pathetic look. "She's sitting all alone over there. How about I invite her over?" he suggested.

"I don't see why not," Eresa smiled.

Videl shrugged. "Whatever. I don't care," she muttered, shoveling another forkful of food into her mouth.

Gohan stood up and began to walk over toward the new transfer student.

__

Oh God! He's walking over here. Now what do I do?! Cyris cursed.

Gohan stepped up to her, a wide grin on his face. "Uh, hey! You seem kinda lonely over here. You wanna come sit with us?" he asked, scratching the back of his head.

Cyris suddenly felt a huge rage well up inside her out of nowhere. She stared up at Gohan, her eyes glowing like red-hot coals.

Gohan gave her a confused expression. "Is there something wrong?"

Cyris stood up and glared him angrily in the eye. "You listen, and you listen good." she growled. "If you value your life I suggest you and all of your lame excuses for friends stay very _very_ far away from me, understand tutor boy?"

Gohan's eyes went wide.

"I hope we won't have to have this kind of a discussion again, right?" Cyris hissed.

Gohan spun around and walked hastily back to his table.

"So? What happened?" Eresa whispered, eyeing him suspiciously.

"You _don't_ wanna know," he muttered back to her.

Cyris sat back down in her chair with a dazed look on her face.

"Man. Where did all that come from?" she mumbled to herself.

She shook her head and sighed. "Well, things have been known to get a lot weirder. That's for sure."

________________________________________________________________________________


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Arg! Another chapter! I'm working myself to the point of insanity here! Anyhow, things are definitely growing, and getting interesting! I say again—I don't own any of the regular characters you'd find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z. They are copyright of Akira Toriyama. Cyris, Laura, Sita, Nyome, Dora, Meah, and Valerie are MY PROPERTY! Also, keep in mind there's plenty more to come! Enjoy!

~KASH

Cyris slowly trudged through the door of her aunt's small two-story apartment house, ready to just sit down on the couch and relax by watching a couple of soaps before starting her homework.

"What a day," Cyris sighed, curling her striped hair behind her ears to get it out of her line of vision.

She took off her backpack and lazily dropped it on the floor next to doorway, slumping toward the living room.

"Hey!" she heard her Aunt Laura suddenly chirp as she passed the kitchen. She scurried into the room and gave her niece a big hug.

"So, how was school?" Aunt Laura asked, staring at Cyris anxiously, a smile of anticipation on her lips.

"Nothing much, considering it's Twelfth Grade. Wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be," Cyris replied nonchalantly, shrugging.

"Now see, didn't I tell ya!" her aunt laughed, slapping her niece lightly on the back.

Cyris rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but right now I'm ready to just collapse in front of the couch and watch some soaps on the tube before I start my homework," she sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

At that very moment, however, the front door quickly opened and shut. Two girls Cyris's age quickly scuffled into the entrance of the kitchen, both with wide smiles on their faces.

One girl, the shorter and skinner of the two, had light skin, large jade-green eyes and light blue hair tied up into two loose pigtails. She wore a light pink shirt with a fat yellow stripe down the center that bore the phrase "Shopaholic!" in big yellow letters, tight fitting blue jeans, and Adidas dark blue sandals.

The other had dark brown skin, short but thickly curled black hair and dark brown eyes. Her black T-shirt had red flames streaking up the sides with matching black flares, glittery flames running up the sides as well.

"Hey!" they both chirped in unison.

"Valerie! Meah! What are you guys doing here?" Cyris exclaimed, a smile broadening.

"We came to check in on ya to see if the day went OK. Ya know, Twelfth Grade 'n all," the black girl, Valerie, answered.

Meah nodded. "Yeah! We miss not seeing you at school anymore!" she pouted, sticking out her bottom lip.

"Are those the only reasons?" Cyris questioned with a tone of anticipation in her voice, crossing her arms.

Her two friends smirked. "That and we wanted some of your aunt's home-made cookies!" they both laughed.

Cyris chuckled, shaking her head. "How well do I know you?"

"So, are you girls gonna just stand here all day or are you gonna go upstairs and hang out, like you usually do?" Laura sighed, handing Valerie an extremely large plate of chocolate chip cookies.

Cyris's two friends bolted up to her room, both fighting over the cookie tray all the way up the stairs.

Cyris stared up at the ceiling, sighed, and then looked back to her aunt.

Her aunt shrugged. "They're _your_ friends. I don't have to understand them."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Gohan walked through the front door of his home, glad that a day of hard work—let alone saving the city _and_ trying to avoid Videl—was finally over.

"GOHAN!!"

A split second later, Gohan found himself lying on his back on the floor, two large eyes peering at him through clumps of spiky black hair.

"Hi!" Goten chirped, sitting on his stomach with a huge grin on his face.

"Uh, hi Goten..." Gohan smiled weakly.

"Now now, get off of him!" Chi-Chi scolded, walking into the room. She picked up Goten by the back of the shirt and set him down on the floor, allowing her eldest son to get up off the floor.

Gohan sluggishly got to his feet and brushed off his shirt and pants, picking his backpack off the floor.

"Can't you let your brother come home one day without being plowed over?" Chi-Chi moaned, shooting Goten a look.

"At least he didn't knock me through the wall like last week, remember?" Gohan commented, taking off his shoes and setting them neatly next to the doorway.

"Goodness! How could I forget?!" his mother exclaimed, giving her youngest son another look.

Goten began to giggle, scratching the back of his head.

"Moving on—how was school?" Chi-Chi said, changing the subject.

"Weird, actually," her eldest son replied.

"How so?" she questioned, walking back to the kitchen to continue her cooking.

"We got a new transfer student in our class." Gohan began, following his mother into the kitchen and sitting down at the table, "Her name's Cyris. She's supposed to be a genius, but man, she seems to have it out for me!"

"Well, I bet she's probably just all talk. Girls nowadays, right?" Chi-Chi smirked, smiling back at her son.

"Yeah!" Goten chirped, sitting down in a chair across from his brother, though he didn't have the slightest idea what they were talking about.

"It's weird though. Something seems...kinda familiar about her," Gohan murmured, staring down at the table.

"Oh! How about this—she's some past villain in disguise, or something, and she's going to try to kill you every chance she gets!" Chi-Chi laughed, chopping up some vegetables for her stir-fry.

Gohan shook his head. "Ha! Like anything like _that_ would ever happen!" he snorted. "Please!"

Goten stared at them quizzically. "I don't get it..."

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Hey! No fair! You've had more than half of them! Give me the last one!" Meah complained, grabbing the plate of cookies from Valerie, glaring.

"Nu-uh girl! _You're_ the one who's had the most!" Valerie protested, narrowing her eyes at the blue hared teen.

Cyris, having had enough of her friends' complaining, got out of her chair at her computer, walked over to her two friends that were sitting on her bed, and grabbed the remaining cookie off of the plate.

"Hey!" her two friends both shrieked.

Cyris stuffed the cookie into her mouth and, without barely even chewing it, swallowed it.

"There. No more arguments," Cyris muttered. "Now would you _kindly_ keep it down? I'm _trying_ to do something and you two are being very distracting!" she huffed, stomped back over to her desk and sat down in her chair.

Meah glared hatefully back at Valerie. "It's _your_ fault, you know," she hissed.

"_My_ fault?" Valerie growled, wrinkling her nose at her.

Meah jumped off the bed and trotted over to Cyris's side to see what her friend was up to.

"Whatcha doin'?" she asked, pointing to the screen, cocking her head to one side.

"I'm looking for something on the Internet," Cyris answered, staring intently at the screen. "Hey Val, what was that site you told me about yesterday—the one about the Cell Games seven years ago?"

"Uh,_ http:www.herculevictory/tournament/cellsucks.html_, I think."

"Thanks."

Cyris quickly typed in the address into her Web Search. In almost a split second, a site popped up with huge pictures of Hercule pasted all over the place.

__

This looks more like the "Bum of the Year" site to me, Cyris thought, curling her lip.

Valerie, out of curiosity, got up and walked to Cyris's other side to watch her. "What are you looking for?" she questioned, resting her head on Cyris's shoulder.

"A picture," Cyris replied. "Would you believe that I've never seen a picture of Cell before?"

Her friends' jaws dropped.

"Are you serious?!" they both exclaimed, eyes wide.

"Unfortunately," Cyris sighed, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.

"So, why the sudden interest?" Meah inquired.

Cyris just stared at the screen in thought. "I don't know," she whispered.

Cyris quickly opened up the Pictures Section of the site and began rummaging looked through the images.

"God, are they _all_ of Hercule?!" she groaned agitatedly after a couple minutes of searching, finding nothing but Hercule, Hercule, and more Hercule.

Suddenly, as she was scrolling down to get to the end of the infinite list of Hercule pictures, one that flew past caught her eye.

"Ah-ha!" she chirped triumphantly, moving her mouse back up toward the name.

"Cell."

"Wow! There're fourteen pics of Cell here!" Meah awed, leaning further over Cyris's shoulder, her nose touching the screen.

"Makes ya wonder how many guys died trying to get 'em, don't it?" Valerie smirked, crossing her arms.

"Well...here goes," Cyris whispered, clicking on one of the picture titles.

"Geeze! All of these stupid pictures are from a distance!" Cyris exclaimed after a couple more minutes of searching through the pictures.

"Yeah. Bummer, huh?" Meah sighed, resting her elbow on the computer desk.

"Well, look at it this way—at least you know what he looks like from, what, twelve feet or more," Valerie laughed, curling back her hair.

"A lot of good that'll do me," Cyris groaned, looking agitated.

"There's still one left. Maybe that's just the one you're looking for!" Meah sang, jumping up and doing a curt little spin.

"Oh…I gotta go. I'll stop by tomorrow, OK?" Valerie said, looking away from her watch and heading toward the door.

"OK. Thanks for stopping by," Cyris replied as her friend exited, closing the door behind her.

"So, lets see that picture!" Meah chirped, looming back over Cyris's shoulder to observe.

__

God I hate it when she gets like this... Cyris thought. "Here we go," she breathed, clicking lightly the mouse.

Cyris must have had a look of pure shock and horror on her face.

There, on the screen, was Cell. His cold, piercing, lifeless pink eyes staring right at her; into her soul.

"Wow! That's a good one!" Meah exclaimed, smiling.

Cyris didn't show any reply. She just kept staring straight at the screen, into Cell's eyes.

"His eyes..." she whimpered. "His ey-eyes-s..."

Her breathing suddenly became rapid—her heart racing.

"Cyris? Are you OK?" Meah questioned, looking at her friend nervously.

Cyris began to shake uncontrollably. She tried to push back her chair, but ended up loosing her footing and crashed onto the floor. She scooted herself hastily along the floor and into the nearest corner of the room, staring ahead blankly.

"Cyris!" Meah screeched, dropping down in front of her. She grabbed her friend's shoulders and began to shake her, trying to snap her back to reality.

"CYRIS!!"

***

Cell and Goku stood poised twelve feet away from one another in the air high above the tournament ring, both with serious expressions.

"You almost fell out of the ring," Cell began, breaking the silence, a smirk appearing on his lips. "If you had, I would've been declared the winner of this little match of ours."

Goku raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Is the game too hard for you? Should I make it easier?" the bio-android continued. "Perhaps this will make things a little more interesting!"

He slowly outstretched his hand, aiming his palm toward the ground below.

"Hold on! What are you doing?" Goku demanded.

"I am tired of being confined to that ring anyway. Oh—and you might want to tell your friends to...clear the area," Cell cackled.

The Super Saiyan's eyes went wide.

Cell chuckled, a sinister smile on his face, eyes shining.

Goku spun around. "Hey! Get away from the ring!" he shouted to his fellows. "NOW!!"

Cell summoned up his ki and fired an earth-shattering blast at the ring, making it exploded into thousands of tiny pebbles, the ground cracking and shaking.

After the thick clouds smoke and dust cleared, all that was left was a huge gaping hole in the earth's surface.

"Whoa! Cell blew the ring up!" Krillin exclaimed, regaining his footing, eyes wide open, disbelief written all over his face.

Cell slowly lowered himself back down to the ground, letting out a small squeak when he landed. "How do you like that, Goku? It's quite an improvement, don't you think?"

Goku landed back down a couple of feet away from Cell, still staring at him with that serious expression.

"Now the whole desert is our ring! Let's say that the last one standing wins the game," Cell snickered, staring playfully at the saiyan.

"I see. So it's a fight to the finish?" Goku concluded, a small smile spread across his lips.

"Would you have it any other way?" Cell laughed, his smirk broadening.

"No. I guess not," Goku shrugged, beginning to stretch.

The genetically engineered villain turned to completely face his opponent, stretching out his arm. "Right. That's enough talk Goku. Now—it's time to continue the game."

With barely a second to blink, Cell fired an energy blast toward his competitor. Goku quickly leapt out of the way, flying low, but swiftly along the ground.

Cell sped after him, firing ki blasts just barely missed by an inch.

"Get outa there Goku!" Krillin shrieked to his friend, watching worriedly from the sidelines.

Goku flung himself up, spun around, and fired a couple of shots to deflect Cell's numerous attacks, erupting the sky with blinding light, spewing tiny particles of rock every direction.

When the light died down, Goku charged at his foe; the two broke out with a wild outburst of punches. A golden aura surrounded the two fighters—the ground beneath them began to shake violently, all rocks close enough began to crack into pieces, flung in every direction by their immense power.

"They're even! Not only are they equal in speed but now they're equal in power as well!" Trunks awed, wide eyed.

__

What is the secret to Kakarot's power?! Vegeta pondered, watching the competitors intently.

Finally, the lock between the two competitors broke by each punching the other violently in the face. They lunged back to one another in another wild scramble of kicks and punches.

Goku flew into Cell and hit him hard in the jaw, sending the android crashing into the rocky terrain desert terrain. The Super Saiyan flew down toward his rival, ready to attack as soon as he surfaced.

Cell leapt angrily out of the ground and back onto solid earth. With a yell, he fired a savage array of energy blasts at Goku.

The Super Saiyan stopped instantly and blocked the blasts, creating a huge cloud of light and dust around him. After a moment of regaining his bearings, he lunged high into the sky.

"Look! Goku! He's way up there!" said Krillin, gazing toward the sky at his friend. "Hey, what's he doing?"

"Kaaaaaaaaaa...meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..." Goku started, standing in his most famous attack pose.

"Everyone! Get down! Take cover! Get moving! Goku's releasing the Kamehameha!" Piccolo screeched, fear in his eyes.

A wide smile spread across Cell's face. "Goku wouldn't dare unleash the Kamehameha from there, he'll destroy the Earth if he does!" he snickered.

"Ah just relax guys, Goku's crazy but he's not that crazy. There's nothing to worry about," Krillin reassured, waving his hand nonchalantly.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...!"

"No! Goku...!" Cell shrieked, his eyes widening.

"No don't do it! Please Dad don't!" Gohan pleaded.

"No! He wouldn't!" the bio-android exclaimed, trying to persuade himself.

All of a sudden, Goku vanished right into thin air.

Cell's eyes widened. Slowly, he lowered his head to look down in front of him.

There, standing before him, ready to fire, was Goku.

"NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Cell screamed out.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

***

"NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Cyris screamed out at the top of her lungs.

Her Aunt Laura, who was kneeling down in front of her, was so surprised at the sudden outburst she fell backwards onto the floor.

Meah let out a yelp, jumping at the sound of her friend's scream.

Cyris stared at her Aunt Laura for a few seconds in confusion, and then a river of tears broke. She leapt into her aunt's arms and buried her face into her shoulder. Laura wrapped her arms around her niece and patted her on the back.

Meah flopped down next to them, about ready to burst. "Thank _God_ you're all right!" she exclaimed.

After a moment, Cyris managed to calm herself down a little. She looked up at her friend and gave a weak smile.

"Please do us a favor and _don't_ plan on doing that again any time soon!" Meah sighed, looking as though she was about ready to start crying too.

Cyris hastily wiped the tears from under her eyes and gave her friend a hug.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Well, that's it for now! But be patient, brave warrior, for there is more to come ! Oh—if any of you peeps get any ideas for this fic, TELL ME! This is going to be a l-o-n-g fic, and it will have plenty of space for them! Don't forget to leave a review before you go! Until next chapter! Muwahahahahahahahahah!

~KASH


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Phew! Chapter Four! I think I'm gonna do a Cell and start pounding my head into the wall! Anyway, I presume you've read the first three parts, right? If you haven't—GO AND READ THEM N-O-W!! If you have—this is kind of a "blah" chapter. It just shows how Cyris interacts with everything and a bunch of little details that will come into play later on in the story. I shall say again—I don't own any of the regular characters you'd find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z, who are copyright of Akira Toriyama. Cyris, Laura, Sita, Nyome, Dora, Meah, and Valerie are MION! I wish Cell were, though...*sniff*...Don't forget that there's lots more to come! Enjoy!

~KASH

Cyris slowly sat down at the kitchen table and staring dreamily into the striped place mat in front of her.

She was still feeling a little out of whack after the afternoon's traumatic incident, and it certainly showed.

"Are you _sure_ you're all right?" her aunt asked, setting down their plates and silverware.

Cyris nodded, staring at the table blankly.

"Hey Cyris! Why don't you skip school tomorrow?" Laura chirped, trying to see if she could boost her niece's spirits.

"Oh...That's nice..." Cyris trailed off, obviously not paying attention.

"Well, that didn't quite go as expected," her aunt sighed, scratching the back of her head.

"Aunt Laura? When I...blacked out...did I do anything _weird_?" Cyris whispered after a moment, breaking the silence, still staring at the place mat.

"Well, you seemed to be mumbling something," her Aunt Laura began, setting down a huge bowl of spaghetti in the center of the table, seating herself. "I couldn't quite tell, but it seemed like...I don't know...names of some sort."

"Whatnames?" her niece answered quickly, staring at Laura now with wide eyes.

"Uh...something like...Hoku, Veketcha, Killin'—"

"You mean Goku and Vegeta and—" Cyris interrupted, then stopped and stared at her aunt strangely, her eyes widening even more. "How did I know that?" she squeaked.

Laura turned away from her niece's gaze, dishing herself some spaghetti.

Having no response, Cyris shoved the question aside and put a large spoonful of saucy spaghetti onto her own plate.

"Ya know, I think I will take that no school offer."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Gohan strolled into his classroom, books under his arm, and made his way to the back of the room to his seat.

"Hey Gohan!" Eresa smiled as her friend sat down next to her.

"Hey," he chirped, smiling back.

Videl flopped down in a seat on the other side of Eresa, looking extremely angry.

"_Darn_ that Saiyaman!" she snarled, her hands clenched into shaky fists.

Gohan cleared his throat, turning toward Eresa. "So, uh, have you seen Cyris anywhere?" he asked, trying to change the conversation.

Eresa shook her head. "Nuh-uh."

"That's weird," said Videl, joining in on the conversation.

__

Uh oh, I hope it's not anything to do with what happened in the cafeteria yesterday... Gohan suddenly realized, biting his lip.

The bells began to chime through the halls and Mr. Bier entered the classroom as usual, standing at his desk at the front of the room.

"Well, I hope you all are a little more awake than yesterday, because you're all going to get _double_ the amount of homework that you had last night," he said in a sarcastic tone.

There was absolute silence.

"Well, I guess not," he smiled. "To change the subject, Miss McCoy isn't going to bless us all with her presence today. She did, in fact, manage complete and turn in the rest of this week's homework this morning!"

A couple of heads bobbed awake at this comment and Gohan's elbow slipped off his desk.

"_What_?! Man! She really _is_ a genius!" he exclaimed.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Laura crept slowly up the stairs toward her niece's bedroom, stopping in front of the door and lightly knocking on it.

"What?"

Laura slowly pushed open the door and walked into the dark room.

Cyris was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to her CD.

"Just wanted to check up on you," her aunt said, putting her hands on her hips. "Are you _sure_ you're OK?"

Cyris turned her gaze up to her aunt. "Yeah. I'm...fine," she assured, forcing a weak smile.

Her Aunt Laura cocked her eyebrow, smiling back. "All right. Around two o'clock I was gonna go and pick up some movies from Blockbuster—wanna come?"

Cyris shrugged.

"Let me know then," her aunt said, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Cyris turned back to the ceiling, a look of regret on her face. "If _only_ I were as fine as everyone thinks I am," she sighed sadly.

A small ghost of a smirk spread across her lips.

"If only..."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Gohan picked up his slice of pizza on his tray, staring at it with an odd look.

"You'd think by now—with all the complaints the Cafeteria Women get about this junk—the school'd hire someone else that could actually cook _edible_ food," he complained, dropping the greasy slop back onto his tray.

"I know," Videl groaned, wrinkling her nose. "The pizza tastes like cardboard."

"Hey Videl," Eresa whispered into her friend's ear, "don't look now, but the President of the Goof Troop's comin'."

Videl rolled her eyes, sighing. "Great."

Sharpener sat down next to Gohan, with one of his "Aren't I Wonderful?" smirks on his face.

__

Why me? Oh, why me? Videl cursed in her mind. "Er—hi Sharpener," she said, giving him a weak smile.

"Hey Videl. Do you know where that Cyris girl is?" he asked, so offhandedly it seemed as if Videl didn't even exist.

Gohan's face went blank.

"Sharpener? Are you _OK_?" Eresa questioned, eyeing him suspiciously.

Videl elbowed her forcefully in the ribs. "Umn—to answer your question—no. Cyris took the day off."

"Why do you ask?" Gohan asked, cocking his eyebrow.

"Oh, no reason. I just wanted to ask her to go with me to The Club this weekend," Sharpener replied.

Gohan, Videl, and Eresa all went bug-eyed. "You wanted to ask _her_ to go with _you_ to The Club?!" they all exclaimed in unison.

"_Yeah_. She's cute!" he laughed. Then his expression immediately changed to that of melancholy, lowering his head. "Well—since she's not here—I'll go. Bye," he sighed sadly, picked up his tray, and walked away.

"That was _way_ too freaky..." Videl squeaked.

"Ohmygosh! I just thought of something!" Eresa suddenly piped up.

That's a first, Videl thought.

"Since Sharpener said he wanted to ask _Cyris_ to go somewhere with him, and how sad he looked when _you_ said she wasn't here, and how he said she was _cute_; I think Sharpener has a _cruuuush_."

Gohan's eyes widened. "On _Cyris_?"

Videl threw her hands up into the air and screamed "THANK YOU!!!" to the ceiling before her chair toppled backward.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Cyris sat up quickly in bed, sweat trickling down her forehead, heart racing. She looked frantically around the room for a moment, then flopped back down onto her bed, panting heavily.

"It was...just a dream..." she breathed. "Guess I must've dozed off."

She removed her earphones from around her head and stopped her CD player, which was still blaring "Kick the P.A." from her Spawn soundtrack.

__

Man, what is it with these dreams? Cyris thought. _They're obviously about the Cell Games seven years ago—I know that now—but I know things no one else knows. The names of almost all the "Mystery Men" that were there, who they are, what _age_ they were! All except that one boy who's started fighting Cell now—Gohan. Definitely not that dorky Gohan in my class, though. Can these really be _just_ dreams? Or are they something mo—_

KNOCK KNOCK

"Cyris? It's time for lunch," her aunt called through the door, breaking through Cyris' thoughts.

"ACK!! Wha? Oh! Um—I'm coming!" she finally replied through a struggle of almost having a heart attack.

She heard the light thudding of her aunt's footsteps going back down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Cyris sat up, stretched, and groggily trudged out of her room.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, the fresh smell of warm cheese pizza met her nose.

A wide smile spread across her face.

"PIZZA!!"

Cyris galloped to the kitchen, grabbed one of the plates of pizza that her aunt was carrying to the table as she ran by, sat down, and stuffed one whole slice into her mouth, swallowing it whole.

"GOODNESS!!" her Aunt Laura hollered, regaining her balance from almost being toppled over. "What are you trying to do, huh?! Give me a Cardiac Arrest?!"

Unfortunately, her yells were paid no attention, seeing as how Cyris was now well into her second piece of pizza and getting four more slices out of the delivery box.

Her aunt sighed. "Oh, why bother..."

She finished walking to the table and sat down across from her niece, giving her an odd look.

Cyris stopped for a moment and stared back awkwardly, a slice of pizza hanging halfway out of her mouth.

"Oh! Don't do that!" Laura scolded, rolling her eyes. "Can't you eat like a _lady_? I didn't raise you to be a good-for-nothing slob, you know!"

Cyris shoved the piece all the way into her mouth, quickly gulping it down.

Her aunt shuddered, turning away and staring at the window.

"So, what's up?" her niece asked, slouching lazily back in her chair, arm hanging over back.

Laura turned back to her, a smile broadening. "Well, I _know_ I shouldn't be doing this _now_, but I thought it might just perk up your spirits a little," she chuckled, standing up and quickly walking out of the room.

Cyris cocked her eyebrow, watching her aunt disappear around the corner.

Laura returned a moment later, a small envelope in her hands, grinning ear-to-ear.

"This is an early birthday present," she giggled, handing her niece the envelope.

Cyris sat up in her chair, slowly opened the envelope, and pulled out a small check and a letter.

"Do you know what that is?" her aunt questioned, still grinning.

Cyris quickly glanced over the letter, her eyes widening. "You...Y-you were...able to get me in?!"

"Yup."

"YYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Cyris screamed at the top of her lungs, jumping up and down repeatedly.

"I guess you like it?"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GOT ME INTO THE WORLD MARTIAL ARTS TOURNAMENT!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Well, since May seventeenth's your sixteenth birthday, they were able to sneak ya in," her Aunt Laura was able to explain over her niece's screams. "The check's for the entry fee, if you didn't already guess."

"YOU ARE THE _BEST_!!!!!!!!!!" Cyris cried, wrapping her arms around her aunt tightly. "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!"

"I'm so glad you're _excited_. C-could you let go—I can't breath..."

"Oh no..." her niece suddenly gasped, letting go of her Aunt Laura who now looked as though three of her ribs were broken, "The tournament is in _two weeks_! I've gotta go train!"

Laura stared up at her niece in thought, eyebrows furrowed. "Well...why not? It's your day off."

Without another moment to spare, Cyris bolted out of the kitchen and thundered up the stairs.

Aunt Laura chuckled, shaking her head, picking up the plates and heading over to the counter. "She _must_ take after her father—whoever he is. Certainly didn't get it from me or Jade—God rest her soul."

Cyris raced back into the kitchen another moment later; she was wearing old dark blue jeans with holes in the knees, worn out white sneakers, and a black skin-tight, short-sleeved shirt.

"I'll see you in a couple of hours, OK?" she said, kissing her aunt lightly on the cheek and running out the door.

Her Aunt Laura sighed, laughing. "Boy. She sure is something else."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Goten sat at the kitchen table, feeling _extremely_ bored. Since his brother was off at High School and his mother busy with housework, there was no one to play with and nothing to do.

"So bored...so buh-buh-boored..." he sighed, not being able to suppress his yawn.

Chi-Chi quickly scuttled into the kitchen carrying a huge, dusty cardboard box. She dropped it onto the table with a loud thud and flopped down next to Goten, breathing heavily.

"G-geeze! That...thing w-weighs a ...t-ton!" Chi-Chi huffed, wiping her forehead on the back of her hand.

"Hey Mom, can you play with me?" Goten whimpered, giving Chi-Chi a forlorn look.

Chi-Chi let out a long sigh. "Sorry sweety, I'm right in the middle of Spring Cleaning. Why don't you go outside and play? It's a beautiful day!"

Goten furrowed his brow and stared at his mother blankly.

Chi-Chi suddenly jerked her head toward the window. "Oh my goodness!" she gasped, pointing.

"What Mom!" Goten said, jumping out of his seat.

"There was a _huge_ lizard out there! It must've been as tall as a skyscraper!" Chi-Chi exclaimed, her eyes wide.

"Oh WOW!" Goten awed; he scrambled out the kitchen and through the front door, yelling, "Bye Mom! I'll be back in a little!" as he slammed it shut.

Chi-Chi giggled, shaking her head.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Goten kicked a small pebble from the dusty earth with the toe his shoe, looking discouraged. "Oh...that lizard's probably really far away now," he sniffed, rubbing his nose.

He seated himself down on a rough old boulder, resting his head in his hands.

__

I wish Gohan didn't have to go to stupid ol' High School so he could stay home and play with me, he though, sighing.

Suddenly, an eruption of ki surged through his thoughts. He sat up quickly, holding his breath, and cautiously turned around to gaze behind him. "Ack!" he yelped, and dropping hastily to the ground.

After a moment, he slowly got back up and peaked over the rocks to catch another quick glance.

A lone figure stood a couple yards away, back facing him. Black skin-tight shirt, old blue jeans, and white worn out sneakers were her apparel; messy, untamed green and black hair atop her head. She seemed as though she was in some deep meditative state, not moving even the slightest inch.

Goten raised his head up just a little more, raising up more onto his knees.

In a flash, the girl lunged into the sky, punching and kicking wildly at the air, flipping and spinning gracefully around the desert training ground.

Goten quickly lowered his head at her sudden launch into the air, though he kept his eyes glued on the fast moving blur dashing through the air.

She jerked herself to a halt, formed an energy disk in her palms, and flung it into a nearby boulder, slicing it in two as if it were a giant mound of butter.

As the boulder's top was just about to touch the ground, the girl appeared underneath it and shoved it high into the sky—where she proceeded to smash it into thousands of pebbles with a well-placed punch. Then, with a loud "HeeYA!", the girl released a barrage of ki blasts, blowing each one of the tiny rocks into microscopic dust.

"Whoa..." Goten awed, jaw hanging open, his eyes so large they looked as though they were going to pop out of their sockets.

The girl stopped abruptly in a mid-spin and jerked her head around, her hot magenta eyes immediately locking with his.

Mouth still hanging open, Goten just kept staring back, the moment seeming to last an eternity.

Then, Goten managed to pull himself out of the fantasy, hastily dropping to the ground, trying desperately to hold down his spiky black hair.

After a moment of silence, Goten slowly opened one eye, then the other. He took his hands off his head, hoisted himself onto his knees, turned cautiously back around, and peered over the rocks.

"Sh...she's gone...!"

Suddenly, Goten felt the air around him shift, and the light thump of shoes landing behind him.

"Well, I see I have a little eavesdropper, do I?"

_________________________________________________________________________________

Yeah, I know, real cliffhanger (sshhheeah right) ...Hey, I'm in a writer's jam—so sue me. Anyhow, if anyone has any ideas, TELL ME! I NEED them! OK, I'm getting spastic now...bye...

~KASH


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Na-HA! Chapter Five! Hope I didn't leave you guys in suspense with that last chapter (*sweatdrops* Yeah right—if that's what you want to call it...). I know I said it in the "Preview", but there're no cat fights in this. Sorry! Anyway, I don't own any of the regular characters you'd find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z. They are copyright of Akira Toriyama. Cyris, Laura, Sita, Nyome, Dora, Meah, and Valerie are KASH Copyright. Remember that there's a lot more to come! Oh! And if ANY of you have any ideas, Puh-LEEZE leave them in your reviews or e-mail me! I check daily!

~KASH 

"Well, I see I have a little eavesdropper, do I?"

Goten didn't even have a fraction of a second to turn before he felt a strong tug at the back of his shirt and was lifted into the air.

He squirmed and kicked wildly, trying to free himself from his stronghold. "I-I don't know what e-eefs are—but I haven't been droppin' any so let me go!" he yelled, still struggling, waving his arms in circles.

"Whoa! Take it easy!" the girl exclaimed, grabbing him under the arms and turning him quickly around to face her. "I'm not tryin' to kill ya!"

Goten opened his eyes, raising up his head, and gazed at the girl curiously.

Her messy green and black hair dangled over her hot magenta eyes, which almost seemed to smile just as widely as the grin upon her cheeks.

Then, the girl's smile disappeared, replaced with a crossed expression of shock, disbelief, and question, her eyes widening.

"But...No way...You can't be..." she trailed off. "Who...Who are you?"

A boyish smile lit up Goten's face. "I'm Goten!" he chirped, cocking his head to one side.

The girl's expression quickly changed back to her smiling again. "Oh! Sorry, I thought...you were somebody else. You look so much like him, though," she said, setting him down on the ground.

Goten cocked his eyebrow. "Who?"

"Doesn't matter," she said quickly, running her fingers through her mangled hair. "By the way—I'm Cyris, since we're in the topic of formal introduction."

"Er...What?"

Cyris forked her eyebrow slightly. "Nothing."

A moment of awkward silence followed as Cyris gazed into the horizon, curling back her striped hair.

Goten kept his eyes on her with somewhat of a mesmerized stare, his mouth slightly agape.

__

Wow...She's pretty...

Cyris turned back to him, smirking. "So Goten, do ya know how to fight?" she questioned, raising her eyebrows.

Goten nodded slowly, his eyes still glued onto her.

"OK. What about using ki energy?"

Goten curled his lip in thought, staring down at his shoes. "Ki? Umn...what's that again?"

Cyris fired a small energy blast into a boulder to her left, shattering the giant rock into smithereens.

"Oh! That? Yeah—a little," Goten said, getting to his feet.

"Ah-HA! Just as I thought!" Cyris laughed triumphantly, pointing at the small boy. "You see, there's no way anyone could track my movements as well as you did if they didn't have a ki level above twenty-five."

"...Oh..."

Cyris's smirk broadened; she stood in somewhat of an attack pose, her eyes fixed on Goten. "Well, c'mon, let's see whatcha got," she said, crouching closer to the ground.

"Uh...You want me...to fight you?" he questioned, pointing at himself.

Cyris gave a quick nod.

"Umn...OK," Goten shrugged, and with that, he lunged at Cyris.

He balled up his hand into a fist and went to punch her in the chest, but Cyris caught his hand with ease and flipped him over her head.

"Step one—never let yourself be caught open like that, and don't let your opponent know what's coming until the absolute last second!"

Goten landed with a light thump and charged again, but this time he stopped short and swung his leg along the ground, catching Cyris's feet.

"Good! That's the way!" Cyris persuaded as she back-flipped and landed a couple feet away, just as Goten was about to punch her. "Now come and get me!"

Goten jumped into the air and flung himself at Cyris, forming a small energy blast in his hand. Only inches away, he fired at her, and as Cyris blocked the ki attack, he swerved himself forward at kicked her in the face, catching her just as she was turning back around to face him.

She crashed to the ground, lying motionless for a second.

Goten landed back onto the ground and charged again. He punched just as Cyris flipped out of the way and he made contact with the rocky terrain, sending up tiny rocks and debris into his face.

He rubbed his eyes and coughed, trying to rid himself of all the dust.

Cyris grabbed him under the arms, hoisting him into the air.

"Never let yourself be so open!" she barked. "You're giving your opponent a perfect chance to attack!"

Goten flipped up his leg and attempted to kick Cyris in the face, but she teleported a couple feet away from him, sending him spinning down to the ground.

He hit the ground on his rear, his feet slipping out from underneath him when he tried to land properly, and scraped one of his hands on a sharp rock poking out from the dusty earth.

Cyris waited patiently, awaiting his next move.

Goten grabbed his bleeding hand, an expression of pain on his childish face. Tears began to cloud his eyes and he started whimpering, biting him bottom lip.

Cyris stood from her attack pose and stared at him curiously. Then, when she noticed the blood gushing from a deep cut in his palm, she immediately went over to his side.

"Ouch, that looks pretty bad," she said, reaching for his hand.

Goten quickly pulled it away, hugging it close to his chest.

Cyris glared at him. "Look, if you want it to stop hurting you'll let me help! Unless you want it to get infected and cause you even more pain!"

Goten stifled a sob, looking up at her with watery eyes, and put his injured hand back out for her to inspect.

She took it gently, bringing it up close to her eyes. She then let it go and sat down on the ground, proceeding to rip off the brim of her tattered jeans.

Goten watched curiously, blinking away his tears.

"Gimme your hand," Cyris ordered, yanking off the last seams from the strip.

Goten put out his hand again, and Cyris took it. She then wrapped the strip of cloth tightly around the boy's wound and tied its ends together.

"It'll stop the bleeding," she told him. "But as soon as you get home you need your mom to look at that."

Goten nodded, standing.

"Look at you—you're a mess!" Cyris sighed, fluffing up Goten's dirt filled hair. "Best tell your mom to give you a bath too!"

Goten wrinkled his nose with displeasure as he shook his head.

Cyris laughed, getting to her feet as well. "Look, I better be going. Can I count on you being here tomorrow around six o'clock?"

Goten's face quickly lit up. "Yeah! I'll be there!" he chirped.

"But you have to promise me," Cyris added, looking at him seriously, "that you won't tell anyone about me or meeting me, got it?"

"Uh-huh."

"It'll be our little secret."

"Yeah!"

Cyris smiled, curling back her hair. "Well, I best be off," she said, patting Goten on the head. "See ya tomorrow. And you might want to consider wearing some training clothes. Those fancy duds won't work."

Goten giggled.

Cyris nodded, turned, and leapt into the air, flying high into the clouds, where Goten lost sight of her.

He quickly bounded off toward his home, already anxious about the next day of training.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Cyris flopped down into her usual chair at the kitchen table, yawned, and set her chin down on the table's surface.

It had been yet another restless night of nightmares. The valiant Super Saiyan, Gohan, fighting a brutal battle against the maniacal Cell.

After revealing that he held an enormous hidden power inside of him, Gohan pleaded that Cell release his grip of terror on the planet or suffer his blind furry. But Cell simple laughed, saying that this "hidden power" was most intriguing, and he was determined to see it for himself.

And the gage began, Cell trying every tactic in his data banks to pry the power out of the boy. Gohan, however, resisted every blow, until Cell finally caught him in a deadly hold and began squeezing the life out of the young half saiyan.

Through Gohan's cries of agony, Piccolo revealed to Goku that his son was not a fighter and never wished to be. If he let his bout with Cell continue any further, Gohan would die.

And just as Goku was about to take action, #16 grabbed Cell from behind, holding him in a similar bondage as Cell had Gohan. He told his fellow android that imbedded deep within his being was a deadly bomb, which he would detonate to rid the Earth of the vile Cell.

But when nothing happened, Krillin jumped forth and cried, "You can't detonate because your bomb...was removed!"

An evil smirk spread across Cell's face. "Sorry 16, but I'm staying," he cackled, broke free from #16's stronghold, and blasted him into pieces.

Gohan was horrified; his face was contorted with expressions of shock, anger, and disbelief.

Seeing the young Super Saiyan's reaction, Cell then created seven miniature copies of himself, and ordered them to attack the Z-Warriors.

And just as the first punch was to be thrown, Cyris awoke.

"Here," said Laura, pushing a plate of French toast and bacon underneath her niece's nose.

Cyris stared down her nose at the plate, pushed it away, and laid her head down on the table.

"Oh come on! You need to eat something," her aunt barked, giving her somewhat of a glare.

"I'm not hungry," Cyris mumbled.

Laura stared at her niece, looking horror struck. "'Not hungry'?!" She reached across the table and put her hand on Cyris's forehead. "You don't have a fever," she concluded, forcing her niece's head up straight. "Now stick out your tongue."

"Aunt Laura! I'm FINE!" Cyris yelled, jerking away from her aunt's grip.

__

Stupid human females—always so nosy. I wish I'd destroyed them all when I had th—

Cyris sat up in her chair, blinking.

__

Wha...What the heck am I SAYING?! Rather, what the heck am I THINKING?!

Just as her gaze fell onto the front door, a tall, yellow bus zoomed by and down the street.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!! THE BUS!!!" Cyris screamed. She bolted from her chair, and, literally, flew up the stairs to get her things.

When she returned, she raced past the kitchen, yelling, "I'm gonna be a little late today! I'm meeting somebody!" and out the front door.

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Why won't it OPEN?!"

Gohan stopped abruptly, about to enter his classroom, and turned toward the direction of the frustrated outburst.

Cyris stood a couple inches away from, what he presumed to be, her locker. She had an expression of absolute furry about her, glaring daggers into it.

"Stupid, fecal, human minded device!" she growled, clenching her hands into fists.

Gohan stared oddly for a moment, then shook his head and attempted to enter his class, but suddenly he felt a ki explosion ring through his thoughts, and he stopped dead.

He jerked his head around just in time to see Cyris charge at the locker and forcefully elbow it, causing it to spring open, sending a loud SPEROING to echo through the halls.

Cyris stepped back, still glaring hatefully at it.

Gohan stood there, wondering, half watching her pick through the contents of her locker.

__

Nah...No way... he concluded, turning yet again and finally entering the classroom.

He strolled to the back of the room to his usual seat next to Eresa and sat down, putting on one of his "Hiya!" smiles.

"Hi!" Eresa chirped, smiling her girlie, blonde smile.

Cyris flopped down in her seat behind him, looking somewhat blank.

And then, a huge CRASH was heard from outside in the halls, causing Gohan, and everyone else, to jump about two feet into the air.

Gohan quickly bounded to the hallway, along with half the arrived class, and stopped in the doorway, his mouth agape.

"Good GOD!"

"What's going on—HOLLY CRAP!!"

"Whoa! What could've caused THAT?!"

Lockers.

Lockers upon lockers upon lockers were tousled about all over the hallway floor; a good portion of the wall had crumbled out, as well, because the tiled floor was littered with tiny white pebbles and plaster.

"Uh-oh..."

Gohan quickly spun on his heel, and came face-to-face with Cyris.

Her complexion seemed slightly pail, and her eyes were wide.

Then her eyes narrowed at him, her lip curling with a gesture of dislike.

"Do-you-mind?" she snapped, spun around, and stomped back to her seat.

Gohan followed his gaze after her, his expression somewhat blank, then sighed, raising his eyebrows.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Cyris cautiously stepped over the disarrayed lockers all along the floor, headed to her next class—P.E.

__

Man! Why'd I have to go and smash up all those lockers for anyway? Look what I've done! For crying out loud! she cursed at herself.

Apparently, she was in very deep thought, because the next thing she knew she felt herself bounce backward, her books and papers scattering everywhere.

"Oh man!" she groaned, getting to her knees and starting to pick up her scattered possessions.

"Gosh! I'm really sorry!"

Cyris looked up, into a pair of large black eyes.

She fell backward in surprise, and for some strange reason, she threw her hands over her cheeks, which had grown quite warm.

Gohan fumbled around to pick up his and Cyris's belongings, muttering in a nervous tone.

Cyris quickly regained her bearings and started to collect her things as well, desperately trying to avoid Gohan's eye contact.

"Geeze! I-I-I'm SO sorry," he said again.

"I-It's OK. Just...stop apologizing!" Cyris groaned.

__

God, why am I acting so WEIRD?!

She shoved the last papers into her binder and stood, just at the same time as Gohan.

He smiled weakly, scratching the back of his head.

"Well...erm, uh...s-sorry again!" he laughed.

Cyris smiled. "It's OK. Hey, sorry 'bout the other day."

Gohan's eyes flew open and her stared at her, thunderstruck.

"Yeah. I was...in kind of a bad mood...nothing personal, I mean."

"Er...OK..."

"Oh crap I'm gonna be late!" Cyris suddenly hollered, and raced past Gohan and down the hall as fast she could.

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Hey! Cyris!"

Cyris turned, just in time to see a tall boy with long blonde hair stretching down between his shoulder blades, dark brown eyes, and a "Million Dollar Smile" walk across the huge gymnasium to stand in front of her.

She crossed her arms, forking her brow. "And...you are...?"

His wide smirk broadened, and he stepping up closer to her. "Me? I'm Sharpener," he said, "but of course you've probably already heard about me—seeing as how I'm so pop-ular and all—"

"Look," Cyris interrupted, "if this is some stupid attempt to 'hit' on me, you're doing a pretty bad job. Now, get out of my face or I'll make you."

Sharpener put his hands on his hips, his smirk broadening even more. "Ha! Yeah right! I bet you couldn't even punch the broad side of a barn if you tried!"

A couple of the students nearby chuckled.

Cyris's eyes narrowed. "Oh? I betcha I could take you out any day of the week, _blondie_."

"Is that so?" Sharpener smirked. "How 'bout I give ya a free shot at me? C'mon, I _dare_ you."

__

I better not punch him. I might end up knocking him well into the next county...Or worse... Cyris thought. _Better just send out some energy and knock 'em over, just to make it _look_ real._

Cyris brought up her fists, facing Sharpener with a serious expression. "All right. Just remember—you asked for it."

Sharpener stepped up to her, smirking ear-to-ear.

The small crowd around them hushed; time almost seemed to stand still.

__

Ha! I bet she chickens out. She doesn't have the guts! Sharpener snickered to himself.

Cyris reared back her right hand far past her head, and paused.

__

Yeah, there she goes. She's just gonna say, "Oh Sharpener! I just can't bring myself to hit a face as cute as yours!" Oh, I'm such a—

Cyris thrust her fist forward, right toward Sharpener's face. But at the last possible instant, too fast for the naked eye to tell, she stopped and pushed out her ki, sending the jock flying across the gym and into the back wall, face first.

Everyone's jaws dropped to the floor, eyes bulging out of their sockets.

Cyris rested her hands on her hips, a ghost of a smirk written on her lips. "Oops. Guess I shouldn't've 'punched' him so hard," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Oh well."

And with that, she turned and walked nonchalantly out of the gym.

_________________________________________________________________________________

The tip of Gohan's pencil snapped as head suddenly jerked up, making a huge black line across his algebra homework.

__

Whoa! What was that?! Gohan thought, his mind buzzing.

"Gohan? What's up?" Eresa questioned, cocking her eyebrow, staring nervously at her friend.

__

I could've sworn I just felt someone's ki flare up if I didn't know better. Somewhere close. But how? It...It doesn't make any sense! Who else on earth...knows how to use ki?

_________________________________________________________________________________

Well, there you have it—the end of Chapter Five! Interesting? Dumb? Let me know! Oh, and if you get ANY ideas, leave them in your reviews or e-mail 'em to me! PLEASE!! Stay tuned, for there will be plenty more! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cough*…Ahaha…haha…ha…

~KASH


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Chapter Six?! Man this is getting long! Geeze! But this time, I don't have to repeat myself with the copyright issue! Why, you ask—I taped it! *presses "play" on a small tape recorded next to her, which immediately says, "I don't own any of the regular characters you'd find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z. They are copyright of Akira Toriyama. Cyris, Laura, Sita, Nyome, Dora, Meah, and Valerie are KASH Copyright."* Oh, and Jessica R. (you people know her as SSJSkaterTrunks), your character is up! You'll recognize her when she pops up! Remember peeps, there's lots more to come! Enjoy!

~KASH 

"That was truly a fantastic feat of supernatural strength! How does it feel knowing you have these kinds of abilities?"

"Well, I—"

"Mr. Saiyaman? Excuse me, Mr. Saiyaman?"

"Y—"

"Mr. Saiyaman! The fans have a RIGHT TO KNOW! What's your favorite pizza topping? Pineapples? Pepperoni, maybe?"

"Whu...What?"

"Mr. Saiyaman! What made you first decide to protect this city rather than the millions of others in the world?"

__

These reporters are impossible! Geeze! Gohan groaned mentally. _If I'm not careful, these wakkos are gonna end up sticking those microphones up my nose!_

"Now Mr. Saiyaman—do you have any further comments?"

__

I better hurry and wrap this up. If I get home any later Mom's gonna kill me!

Saiyaman slowly stepped back from the mob of reporters, putting his arms up into the air.

"I am the protector of truth and justice!" he said, clicking his shoes on the pavement and giving a quick spin, causing his brilliant red cape to catch the wind.

"The righter of wrong; the doer of good!"

He flipped his wrists, crouching down near the ground.

"I am the..."

He jumped back up, and held himself in a pose that looked as though he'd gotten it straight from a Sailor Moon manga.

"GREAT SAIYAMAN!"

FWOMP!

Cyris slipped forward, hitting the sidewalk, her feet sticking up in the air, twitching.

__

Oh yeah! Man, that was SSOOOOO cool! Gohan thought to himself, smirking.

"Oh...my...God..." Cyris whimpered, getting back up onto her feet, rubbing her nose. "This guy's an absolute dork!"

And she wasn't the only one thinking so.

Half the crowd around her looked as though at a loss for words, eyes opened wide in an awkward stare, and the other half trying desperately to contain their laughter.

The reporters' jaws were hanging open, blinking.

"Remember, loyal citizens," Saiyaman said, giving a salute to all the gaping spectators, "always buckle your seat belts, and brush your teeth after every meal!"

"Dear Lord...can this guy...be for real?!" Cyris growled to herself, the corner of her mouth twitching. "I mean, come on! Brush your _teeth_?! He sounds like a dentist drop-out!"

Saiyaman gave a nod, turned, and flew hastily into the clear blue horizon.

The crowd stood motionless for just a moment longer before dispersing, some still chattering excitedly to one another about The Great Saiyaman's fantastic rescue of six people in a highway pileup...and how on Earth he could manage to pull off some of the dumbest stunts!

Cyris brushed off her pants and heaved a sigh. "Guess I better get going too. Goten's probably already waiting for me."

With that, she walked down the sidewalk a ways until she found a deserted alley. After making sure there was absolutely no one watching her, she fired up her ki and zoomed into the air, soaring high into the white clouds of the light blue sky.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Goten quickly ran out into the center of the desert plain, grinning madly.

He had been waiting _forever_ for the training session with his newfound friend, practically driving his mother up the walls with his excitement.

Goten flopped down onto the dusty earth, fiddling with the long navy blue sleeves of his new training outfit.

When he'd returned home the day before, his mother'd gone berserk at the sight of his fancy day clothes torn and dirtied, not to mention his cuts, scrapes, and the dirt that clung to his skin and hair.

So, she'd gone through some of his father's old things and picked out some bright orange training clothes for him.

He loved them to death.

"Hey Goten!"

Goten got hurriedly to his feet and spun around, a giggle of happiness escaping his lips.

Cyris dropped slightly to the ground in front of him, swinging her backpack off of her shoulder and laying it down.

"Aahhhh. I see you got some new training clothes!" Cyris smiled, fluffing up the child's springy ebony hair.

Then her smirk faded, replaced with the peculiar expression she gave him when they first met.

"What's wrong Cyris?" Goten questioned, furrowing his brow.

A shudder ran through her body, and Cyris blinked hard.

Goten cocked his head to one side. "Are you OK?"

"Whu-what...? Oh yeah, I'm fine," Cyris said, still blinking. "I just spaz out sometimes."

Goten gave a slow nod, gazing at her somewhat worriedly.

Cyris raised her eyebrows, putting her hands on her hips. "Hey, I said I was OK."

Goten curled his lip, furrowing his eyebrows at her.

"What? You don't believe me?"

Goten lowered his head downward a little, looking up at her from underneath his thick black eyebrows, and crossed his arms.

Cyris sighed. "I'm FINE Goten. Really!"

"You promise?"

She looked down at him, a curious expression sweeping across her face.

__

Is this kid really that_ worried about me?_

"Yeah. I promise," Cyris answered, smiling. "Now, you head over there and start warming up while I...change my shoes. I'll meet ya in a sec," she told him, turning and picking up her backpack.

"OK!" Goten chirped, and bounded off, giggling, to begin his warm-up.

Cyris dragged her bag with her to a large, flat surfaced rock, where she sat herself down and searched for her old shoes.

__

Man. This is too weird. How can this kid look so much like Goku? Gohan is his only son, and he's probably much older now than at the Cell Games, right?

And then a thought suddenly sparked through her mind, making her freeze.

__

Older...? Then...could that mean...He must be...He must be Saiyaman! Yes, that has to be it! It's the only reasonable explanation for his powers—and his familiar energy signature I sensed!

Cyris just sat there, staring blankly at her shoes, thinking hard. Then she gave a curt snort, shaking her head.

__

Nah! Gohan isn't that_ much of a dork! Even if he _has_ been living under Chi-Chi's influence for seven years. Dear Kami, what am I thinking?! But still...huh?_

Cyris blinked.

__

"Kami"?

"CYYYYRIIIIS!" Goten, who had apparently stopped his warm-up and was standing in front of Cyris, suddenly yelled into her face.

"GEE-YAAAH!" Cyris shrieked, so taken aback that she toppled backwards off the rock and onto the dusty ground.

Goten scrambled over the top of the rock's surface and peaked over, looking slightly nervous.

"C-Cyris? Are you OK?" he questioned in a small voice.

"Dear God..." she mumbled through fast breaths, her hand clutching her chest. "D-Don't SCARE ME LIKE THAT!!"

Goten let out a small yelp, jumping back onto the ground.

Cyris got back to her feet, still breathing rapidly.

She glared at the small boy, her eyes shining maliciously. She seemed to be shaking with rage. "Don't...EVER...do that again!" she snarled, flashing her teeth, hands balled into fists.

"I'm sorry Cyris. I didn't _mean_ to," Goten said, staring down at his shoes thoughtfully.

Cyris's anger fell limp.

Why was she so mad at him for just _scaring_ her? He's only seven—more to the point he didn't do it on purpose! What was wrong with her?

"Ah, it's OK, kid," she sighed, giving him a smile. "I'm just a tad off today—if you haven't already guessed that!"

Goten brought his head back up and grinned, scratching the back of his head.

"All right then! Let's work on some more combat today," Cyris said, stepping back a couple feet. "Now, I want you to power up a bit. We need to work on building your ki up."

"So, you want me to...go right now?" Goten asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Yeah, sure. Go right ahead."

Goten spread his feet apart slightly, lifting up his arms. He gritted his teeth, looking as though he were concentrating hard, and a swirling white aura quickly surrounded him, sending up small clouds of dust.

"Good," Cyris said, resting her hands on her hips. "Now go to your full power."

"...Uh..." the young warrior stuttered, looking up at his trainer oddly, "...But I...already am..."

Cyris's eyebrows forked somewhat, the corners of her mouth drooping. "...Oh...well, uh tthhhhat's OK! It's a good start for someone your age."

__

God, who am I kidding! I'm glad I found this guy when I did—he's got a lower ki level than Krillin for crying out loud!

"So, umn, are you going to too?" Goten questioned, breaking through Cyris's thoughts.

"Oh, right," she replied. "But remember, I'll be a _little_ higher than you."

Cyris lifted her arms up slightly, straightening herself out. Her jaw tightened, and just as she did so, a blast of power erupted around her, cracking and shaking the dry earth beneath her.

The ground slipping below his feet caused Goten to loose his balance, and almost fell backward onto the plain.

And that's when Goten noticed it.

"Whoa! How are you doing that?" he questioned, his eyes alight with awe.

"Huh?" Cyris cocked her eyebrow. "Doing what?"

"You're energy! It feels like there's more than one person!" Goten chirped excitedly, grinning insanely. "Oo! Oo! Can you show me how to too?! Huh?! Canya Canya Canya?!"

Cyris's expression must have been nothing less than utter confusion. "More than...one person...? But..."

"Puh-_lleeze_?!"

__

How can I feel like more than one person? I mean...It's not like I can sense my own _energy as well as other people, but...how am I making it feel like there's more than me?_

"Um...Well, we'll get to that later—when your energy's higher," she lied, trying to shake off her puzzlement.

"Aww," Goten sighed, sticking out his bottom lip slightly.

__

Nah. Must be him—he's still young, after all.

After an hour or so of sparring, Goten was finally all tuckered out. He collapsed onto his backside and wiped off his forehead, breathing rapidly.

Cyris got to her feet, cracking her knuckles. "Well, it's definitely obvious that you're improving." She scratched behind her ear, smiling. "Though, I think I might have been just a _tad_ too fast for ya."

"You're...telling me...!" Goten sighed, giving a wry smile.

At that very instant, a loud growl issued itself from Goten's stomach, and Cyris blinked.

"Heh...I guess I'm a little hungry..." he said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Just a little, huh?" Cyris snickered. "Well, let's call it a day. I better head home and get somethin' to eat too, eh?"

Goten jumped to his feet and gave her a small wave. "Bye! I'll see ya tomorrow!" he giggled as he turned and headed off toward home.

Cyris immediately dropped her smile, furrowing her eyebrows. "He _has_ to be Goku, or something. His form of him is _flawless_." She folded her arms across her chest. "Bottom line."

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Good-bye Mom!" Gohan said, opening the front door to begin his long flight to his high school.

"Bye Gohan," his mother answered from the kitchen. "Have a nice day at school."

"I will!"

Gohan leapt into the fresh morning air, soaring above the treetops. He glanced down at his watch around his wrist, which read seven fifteen, and blinked. "Wow! I'm actually on time!"

He tapped the small red button to its side, and his clothes instantly changed into his brilliantly colored Saiyaman apparel.

"Gohan!"

Gohan looked behind him to see Goten riding closely behind him on the golden Nimbus cloud.

"Can I come?" his little brother asked. "I wanna see your school!"

"You'd better not. I think you'd attract too much attention on that thing," he replied, motioning to the cloud.

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that," Goten sighed. "See ya later."

"Bye!" Gohan chirped, giving him a curt wave, and sped into the light blue sky. "Have fun today!" he yelled back to him as he disappeared into the sky.

"I will," Goten said, waving. "Bye."

"Unbelievable!" Gohan awed, soaring over the large Orange Star City toward his equally large high school, "I actually have a little time to spare! Maybe I should go get some breakfast, or something…"

Suddenly, something caught the corner of his eye, and he wrenched his head to his left.

A large, yellow jet-copter was flying solo just a couple yards away from him.

"I wonder who that is?" he pondered, having the strange feeling that that jet-copter looked slightly familiar...

"It's Saiyaman!" Videl gasped, immediately jerking her jet-copter after the bizarre outfitted hero.

"Oh great, it's _Videl_. I can't land here now!" Gohan groaned in exasperation. "Darn it!" He lowered his head. "There goes my breakfast..." he sighed, almost sadly.

Gohan sped faster in an attempt to lose his obsessed chaser, but Videl cranked up her speed as well, giving into a chase.

Gohan flew into the cover of the clouds to try and make Videl loose sight of him—which worked for a moment—but she levered up and appeared right behind him.

"I've got you now!"

"Man, what's up with this crazy girl?!" Gohan exclaimed, sounding slightly frustrated. "I'm not a _bad_ guy! What's she doing?!"

He angled himself down and sped toward the ground in a dive bomb, and flew hastily close along the street, but the relentless girl stayed right on top of him.

In another attempt to shake Videl off of his tracks, Gohan made a sharp turn into a tight alleyway.

The maneuver managed to slow Videl down, but she sped in right after him, knocking over anything and everything along the alley's close walls with her jet-copter's elongated wings.

"Today's the day I unmask that goober!" she snickered triumphantly, thrusting her control stick further forward, picking up speed.

"Hmm," Gohan chuckled to himself, an idea jutting through his thoughts. "_I_ know."

He suddenly stopped short and turned to face the approaching jet-copter, smirking.

Videl let out a short scream, her eyes wide.

At the very instant the hero would have become a windshield pancake, he vanished.

Videl jerked her flying machine to a quick stop, breathing heavily. _Oh _man_! Woah! _she thought, looking around frantically. _Now where is he?!_

"Phew," Gohan sighed, standing behind a tree in the city's park, not too far away from his ditch effort. "Man, I don't know why she's so bent on discovering who I am! No on _else_ bothers me. This could be a _real_ nuisance."

And at that very moment, Videl flew down and parked her jet-copter in a patch of grass right in front of him.

"Good morning," she snickered, stepping out of her transport and up to the baffled hero.

"Hi there!" Saiyaman said nervously, grinning weakly. "I believe we've met somewhere—yes I'm sure of it!"

"How about I help you see better by taking that _bucket_ off your head?" Videl answered tauntingly, putting her hands on her hips.

She leaned in close to him, her head cocked to her side. "Enough of this _nonsense_—tell me who you are."

The Great Saiyaman sighed, turning, and began walking a few feet away. "All right. I guess I can trust you. You seem like a good person. But _please_ don't ever repeat what you're about to hear."

He stopped, spun back around, and began making odd poses. "I-am-the..."

He curled his arms over his head, making a weird sort of "M". "...Great Saiyaman!"

"You're such a jerk!" Videl spat, glaring at him hatefully, her arms crossed.

"What do you mean...? You asked me who I was," Saiyaman said, laughing nervously.

Videl's eye narrowed. "I wanna know your _real_ name, you nut case! And where you're from and where you get your power," she snapped. "And if you _don't_ tell, I'll find out for myself!"

__

I've never met a girl who was this pushy_ before! She reminds me of my _mother_!_ Gohan thought.

"You better go, or you'll be late," Videl said, interrupting his thoughts.

"Not me! I'm fine!" Saiyaman answered quickly, turning away from her.

"I have a pretty good idea who you _really_ are," Videl continued, walking around to face the hero. "You think you're _so_ clever hiding behind that—"

The Great Saiyaman jerked his head up to the sky, as if something caught his eye, and Videl quickly followed his gaze.

His distraction worked, Saiyaman somersaulted over the raven-haired girl and landed gracefully next to her transport.

"Hey, what're you doing?" she snapped, watching as the bucket-headed hero lifted up her jet-copter over his head.

"_Nothing_," he replied innocently, and took to the air with it.

"What do you mean 'nothing'?! You're _stealing_ my JET-COPTER!!" Videl yelled angrily as Saiyaman landed on top of an apartment roof and set her traveling plane down.

"Not _stealing_! Just _relocating_! I'll see you in a little while!" he replied, growling, "Gohan, you _idiot_!" to himself under his breath, and hastily flew off.

"_That_..._guy_..." Videl growled through clenched teeth, her hands balled into fists. "That fool has no _idea_ who he's messing with."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Gohan looked down at the food—if that's what it was considered to be—on his lunch tray, wrinkling his nose; one word lingered through his thoughts—_Yuck!_

He turned from the serving counter and began to walk across the cafeteria in the direction of the table where he and his friends generally sat.

"Hey, Gohan!"

He stopped and turned at the mention of his name, and Cyris hastily ran up to his side.

"Um, hi," she said, and Gohan could have sworn that her cheeks reddened.

"What's up?" he questioned, cocking his brow.

"Well, I just wanted to ask if it was all right if I sat with you guys," Cyris replied, "I mean, I don't really know anyone here yet, and I was hoping you could help me out with that department—I mean, i-if you don't mind that is!"

"No—that's fine," Gohan chirped, putting on the famous "Son Grin".

"OK," Cyris mumbled quickly, her all ready rosy cheeks becoming all the more rosier.

The two headed off, Cyris lingering behind slightly, cursing things such as, "Why do I keep doing that?!" and some things not worth repeating at herself beneath her breath.

When they reached the table, she flopped down across from a chatterbox blonde, who immediately confronted her with a wide grin.

"Uh, hey!" she chirped, before she gave Gohan, who was now sitting next to her, somewhat of a questioning glance.

"Gohan—who's this?"

"Mm? Fat's Ciesss!" he answered with a fork-full—not to mention the fork—of food in his mouth.

A raven-haired girl sitting next to Cyris gave him disgruntled sort of look, her lips pressed thinly. "Mind repeating that for those of us who _don't_ speak stuffyerfaceenese?" she said curtly.

The blonde girl across from Cyris giggled.

"Hm?" Gohan quickly gulped down the remainder of his fork-full and repeated, "Sorry. That's Cyris—the new girl."

"Oh! She is?!" The blonde leaned over the table, eyeing Cyris over keenly with her huge misty blue eyes, causing the new student to lean back from her slightly.

"Nice to meetchya! I'm Eresa!"

Cyris winced slightly at the girl's high-pitched voice, but smiled anyway. "Uh, hi."

"You don't _look_ much like a genius," the black-haired girl stated impetuously, pointing her spoon at her.

"That's cuz I try _not _to," Cyris replied equally curt, pointing her fork at her in a mimic.

Her "rival" got to gist, setting her spoon down forcefully and giving a wry smile.

"Aw, don't mind her! That's Videl—Hercule's daughter!" said Eresa.

Cyris turned and gave Videl a quick look over, then smirked mischievously, raising up her eyebrows in mild interest.

__

Kami, I swear she looks just like somebody I know when she smirks like that... Gohan pondered.

"Really? I never would have guessed—seeing as how you don't _look_ like much of a _fighter_," she snickered, curling back a small strand of green hair behind her ear.

It must have been one of the deadliest looks that Videl gave Cyris that Gohan had ever seen _any_ woman give, even from his _mother_.

"Oh, and _you'd_ know what one looks like?" Videl snapped back, crossing her arms over her chest in a huff.

"Most of the time," Cyris replied coolly, dishing herself a portion of what looked like pork-and-beans. "Usually golden hair is a dead giveaway."

Gohan's head snapped up at this, and his and Cyris's eyes instantaneously locked.

__

'Sssssssssssaaaaaaaiiyyyyaaaannnnnn.'

After a few moments, Videl got tired of the stare-off and threw a banana at Gohan's head, causing him to abruptly snap back to reality.

"Knock it off!" she growled at him, shaking a fist.

Cyris blinked hard a couple of times, shaking her head.

Eresa smiled perkily. "Hey, does that mean _I'm _a fighter?!"

Everyone remaining at the table instantly fell backwards and hit the floor.

"Ooo! And then what happened?! Tell us! C'mon!"

Cyris got back up into her seat and turned toward the direction of the chatter.

A bunch of girls, and some boys, were squeezed into an already overcrowded table not to far from Cyris's seat. They all appeared to be listening intently to one girl, who sat at the "head".

From what Cyris could see of her, she had short, spiky blonde hair, grayish-blue eyes with a hint of a mischievous gleam, and was dressed in, loosely called, a "punk rocker" type apparel.

"Gohan—who's that girl over there?" Cyris questioned, not lingering her gaze away from her observations.

__

Somehow...she looked familiar...

Videl snorted, shaking her head slightly. "_That's_ Jasawitz," she sneered distastefully. "_Jessica_ Jasawitz."

Cyris, who noticed the disliking tone in Videl's voice, turned and cocked a brow at her. "Well, what's the story behind her?"

This time it was Eresa who spoke up. "It's an odd story, actually. Before the whole Nikkei Town Monster stuff seven years ago, Jessica was always being tossed aside. Boyfriends, _best _friends—you get the idea, right?

"Well, after the Cell Games and all, Jessica started up all these rumors that she met up with the 'Big Bad Monster of Nikkei Town', and, since she knows _some_ martial arts, says she beat him up no-sweat."

"Yeah right," Videl scoffed.

"And since then a bunch of people think she's the greatest person to live besides Hercule," Eresa finished.

"Pretty funny, huh Cyris?" Gohan laughed, trying to boost the dragging mood.

...Nothing.

Gohan cracked an eye and looked across the table Cyris's way, and gulped.

__

This was now, by far, the most ferocious expression Gohan had ever seen on a woman.

Cyris was glaring butcher knives into Jessica Jasawitz's skull, completely swerved around to face her. She was shaking with absolute rage, and her eyes were an unusual shade of reddish brown.

__

That...That WEAK _FEMALE thinks she can get away with saying that she defeated _me_?! ME?!?! Dr. Gero's GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT?!?! SHE WILL DDIIEE!! I will see to it MYSELF!!_

Cyris was suddenly to her feet, so fast that even Gohan didn't catch her movement, her chair clanking to the floor loudly.

Everything stopped.

No noise; no chatter; nothing.

Everyone was staring at Cyris in puzzlement.

"...You..." she snarled with the utmost loathing, and stomped over to the girl in a flash.

"Man, what's up w—" Jessica tried to say, but Cyris had yanked her from her chair and thrust her up against the closest wall, pinning her up by the scruff of her shirt.

"What the Hell do you think you're doing?!" Jessica spat contemptuously, her gray eyes ablaze.

"Quiet human," Cyris sneered, pushing her harder into the wall. "Now why don't I tell you the _real_ story of what happened that day in Ginger Town, shall I?"

Jessica blinked.

"Yes, you were the last of them, weren't you? I remember it all _quite_ clearly. After I finished off with your weak kin, you were standing there, screaming, and began to run. Run for all your pathetic legs were worth, didn't you?"

"...What are..."

"I gave chase, naturally. It can be invigorating every now and then to have some fun with your prey, and killing on the helpless grows tiresome."

Jessica's face went pale.

"No matter where you went, I was always _one_ step ahead of you. Then you raced into the dark alleyway, and slipped, obviously disabling yourself. You lay there, helpless at my feet as I approached you."

An evil smirk slowly swept onto Cyris's lips, and she pulled Jessica so close to her face that the tips of their noses touched.

Cyris's voice lowered. "And do you remember...what I said?"

Suddenly, in an instant almost too fast for Jessica to comprehend, Cyris's pupils slit vertically, almost catlike, and the oddly high-pitched, raspy cackle came to her ears as she said, "Now you shall become part of me—the _perfect warrior_!"

_________________________________________________________________________________

I'd like to apologize for it taking so long to get this chapter up—MAJOR Writer's Block! Ouchies! Anyhow, if you peeps out there have any ideas for this, I'm more than happy to take them! There's going to be a "Special Thanks" page at the end of the fic, AND you'd be mentioned in the "Author's Note" at the beginning of the chapter it would be used. Thanks for reading! Until next chapter...Muwahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa!!

~KASH


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: OK, just to let you all know, this is a direct continuation of the last chapter—I _was_ going to add all of this to Chapter Six, but I decided it was too long as it was and made it a new chapter...yadayadayada...etc. *takes out her tape recorder and presses "play"; it immediately says, "I don't own any of the regular characters you'd find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z. They are copyright of Akira Toriyama. Cyris, Laura, Sita, Nyome, Dora, Meah, and Valerie are KASH Copyright."* Ah, the joys of modern conveniences! Oh! Er…Enjoy!

~KASH

An evil smirk slowly swept onto Cyris's lips, and she pulled Jessica so close to her face that the tips of their noses touched.

Cyris's voice lowered. "And do you remember...what I said?"

Suddenly, in an instant almost too fast for Jessica to comprehend, Cyris's pupils slit vertically, almost catlike, and the oddly high-pitched, raspy cackle came to her ears as she said, "Now you shall become part of me—the _perfect warrior_!"

The last of the color left in Jessica's face swept clean away, and let out a small whimper, not enough force in her body left for a scream. She just stared, horrified, into Cyris's insane looking eyes.

"Hey! Cyris, cut it out!"

Cyris suddenly felt someone grab her forcefully around the shoulders from behind, giving her a stern shake.

And then, Cyris's world began spiraling around her. She immediately dropped Jessica from unnerved, shaky hands, and felt herself spin around, meeting a pair of fearful black eyes.

"What are you doing?!" Gohan demanded, staring into Cyris's blank expression, still holding onto her shoulders.

__

No...It burns_...Let...go..I...I can't..._

'Stop it!!'

"Whu—" Cyris sputtered, hearing the child-like voice echo through her thoughts.

"Cyris?" Gohan said questioningly, his expression becoming more concerned, and worried.

__

'That's ENOUGH!!'

Cyris's head flopped backward, but she still kept her dazed sights on her holder, her mouth opened slightly.

"...Guh...Go...Goha—"

Her knees buckled underneath her, and she dropped like a two-ton weight toward the floor.

Luckily, Gohan caught her at the last instant, looking, what you could say, extremely freaked and confused.

"...guh...guh..." Cyris barely whispered, her eyes clouded and glazed. She gazed up at Gohan lazily, trying desperately not to slip into the darkness creeping around her...

And then...she saw _him_.

The image slowly overlapped itself over Gohan's delicate features...A boy...with upwardly spiked golden hair, a single thick strand hanging down over to the side...blood streaming down his face from a gash on his forehead...many little scratches and bruises...and his eyes...metallic green...hauntingly green...

Cyris barely parted her lips, and the words slipped past them.

"...Gohan..._ssssaiyann_..."

And then...everything around her...went black.

Gohan just stared down in bewilderment at the unconscious figure in his arms, his mind racing.

__

Saiyan...? But how could she...

"Jesus..." Jessica said, getting shakily to her feet, her complexion almost pure white.

Suddenly, a girl with straight, shoulder-length dark blue hair broke forcefully through the small crowd, and immediately bent down next to Gohan. Before he had any time to ask, the girl put her fingers up to Cyris's neck—checking for a pulse—and snapped her head up to Gohan, her yellow, mysterious looking eyes darting him over.

"What are you doing just sitting here?! Get her to the Nurse's Office RIGHT NOW!" she barked, a spark of anger catching her eye.

"Gah! O-OK!! I'm going!" Gohan sputtered quickly, picking Cyris off of the floor and hastily scurrying out of the now silent cafeteria.

The blue-haired girl got to her feet, gazing after Gohan until he disappeared through the doorway and was out of sight.

She then whipped around to a still baffled Jessica, and said forcefully, "What did she say to you?"

"What's it to _you_?" Jessica snapped back, and glared into the girl's laser yellow eyes, her mouth line thin.

The two girls just stood there, silent, staring holes into the other's eye sockets.

"Yeah Jessica! What _did_ she say?" wined a redheaded girl to her right, looking up at her anxiously.

"Man yo—whadshe say? C'mon man!" said a boy who stepped up behind her.

Then the girl with the blue hair smiled mischievously, a twinkle in her mysterious eye. "Hmm...Interesting," she said coolly.

Jessica's face went blank, her eyebrows forking only slightly.

"Jess! What _did_ she _say_?!"

Jessica glanced behind her, saying, "Nothing. Just some weirdo asking for more details, really," she smirked, shrugging.

But when she turned back to look in front of her, the mysterious blue-haired girl was nowhere to be seen.

__

...What the blue Hell is going on around here?

________________________________________________________________________________

Mrs. Knox, the short, sandy-haired school nurse, sat at her desk, drumming her nails slowly on the desk's cold, wooden surface.

There had been absolutely _no one_ to come into her office today, and she was seriously thinking about just taking the rest of the day off—seeing as how it was so incredibly _dull_ thus far.

__

SKT SKT SKT

Mrs. Knox lifted her head up lazily at hearing the loud clapping of footsteps echo through the empty hall, gazing at her office's glass doors with mild interest.

__

SKT SKT

KER-FWAM!

Her eyes focused just in time to see a tall boy suddenly run into the thick doors, stick to the glass for only a second—similar to that of a fly splattered up against a window—, and take a wobbly step back, looking dazed.

She immediately gasped at the sight of the figure in his arms, abruptly stood from her desk, and scurried to the door to let the boy inside.

"What happened?" she said quickly as soon as he'd made it through the door, her hazel eyes darting over the unconscious girl that lay in her "rescuer's" arms.

"I-I dunno! One second she was fine, then she started muttering stuff and just fainted!"

"Set her down in here," Mrs. Knox ordered sternly, opening the door to her infirmary room near the back of her office.

Gohan did so, walking in and setting Cyris down gently on the cushioned bench against the wall.

Mrs. Knox bent down next to Cyris and checked her wrist for a pulse. She then put her hand on the girl's forehead for a moment. Her expression darkened.

"God, she feels like she has quite a fever! You! Hand me an ice bag, pronto!" the nurse barked, pointing to a tiny freezer in the corner.

Gohan leapt over to the freezer, almost ripping the door off its hinges, and quickly retrieved a small ice bag, handing it to the nurse's expecting hand.

Mrs. Knox immediately set it gently across Cyris's forehead.

"I-Is she gonna be all right?" Gohan stuttered worriedly, staring down at Cyris over Mrs. Knox's shoulder.

"Yeah," the nurse answered, getting up and walking to the sink in the connected bathroom to wash her hands, "My guess is that she passed out 'cause of the fever."

"Fever..." Gohan repeated absently, gazing back down at the unconscious Cyris.

Her cheeks and her forehead had become a light red, but the rest of her skin color had drained away to almost white.

"Geeze," Gohan muttered, his eyebrows raised.

He just couldn't help but wonder...what in Kami's name had _happened_ to make her so upset to blow up at Jessica Jasawitz, start muttering things about _saiyans_—which worried him most of all—and then black out? And where could this "fever" have come in out of _nowhere_? It just didn't seem to make any sense.

"Excuse me."

Gohan snapped out of his mind wracking and turned to the short nurse in the doorway, who had her arms crossed over her chest and her lip curled slightly.

"You can go now, you know," she said airily, lifting a thin eyebrow.

"Oh! Uh-huh, right..." he laughed nervously, scratching his head.

"But this time, try not running into the door, will you?"

Gohan sweatdropped, looking sheepish. "Right..."

And with that, he hurriedly scurried out of the small office, making sure not to slam into the door on the way out, and back down the hall.

Mrs. Knox sighed, planting her hands onto her hips and looking across the small inventory room at the out-of-consciousness Cyris.

"Sometimes the boyfriends just _don't_ know _when_ to leave, do they?" she chuckled, mostly to herself, turning and shutting the door behind her.

________________________________________________________________________________

"Tell them to _STOP IT_!!"

The smirk on Cell's face quickly diminished, his magenta eyes widening with intrigue as he turned to face the young half saiyan.

"That's the way," he snickered, the sinister smile spreading back upon his lips. "Let it all _go_!"

Gohan's muscles began to expand, and his golden hair beginning to point upward. Suddenly, he let out an earsplitting scream, his ki level skyrocketing, causing the very ground beneath him to quake and split violently.

"Incredible..." Cell awed, just as another wave of ki and dust swept across the plane.

And finally it stopped, the last winds dying down, dust still lingering through the dry desert air.

Everyone stared anxiously at barely visible form of the young saiyan in the dirt cloud that his energy had created, absolutely still, waiting for a next move.

Ever so slowly, the dust slowly parted, to reveal Gohan in his newly transformed state.

The innocence that always lingered around him was now gone, replaced with an emotionless look of the battlefield. All but one strand of his yellow hair, which dangled over his left eye, was now spiked upward, and flickering ki bolts surrounded his small body.

"I can never forgive you for what you've done," Gohan snarled, his hot green eyes narrowed, and he began to slowly close the gap between the bio-android and himself.

Cell held his ground, but his already wide eyes widened more as he watched the boy come to a slow halt in front of him.

A victorious smirk slowly spread back onto his striped cheeks, regaining some of his composure. "At last, you've come out of hiding," Cell said in his usual playful, though taunting manner. "Now the game will _really_ get exciting!"

Suddenly, almost too fast for even Cell to tell, Gohan's hand swiped through the air, ripping the small bag of Senzu beans out of the villain's hand.

"No games."

"Wha..." Cell quickly looked down at his milky-white hand, seeing that the bag he held was now in the young Super Saiyan's grasp. "How did you... The Senzu beans! How did you get them?!"

Cell made an abrupt grab to reclaim them, but Gohan teleported out of the way to the nearby cliffside, where one of the seven Cell Jrs. was positioned.

With a smirk much like his sire's, the miniature bio-android leapt out at him, but had no luck in even touching him.

Gohan quickly moved to the side, and hit the Cell Jr. hard in the small if his back, breaking him apart. What was left of the tiny android crashed to the ground, and exploded into a tiny cloud of blue dust.

"After all the time we've spent trying to kill these thing he does it in _one blow_!" Vegeta gasped, with a slight snarl in his tone.

"Gohan!" Trunks exclaimed. "You're _amazing_!"

________________________________________________________________________________

Gohan shot another anxious glance toward the classroom door, which was just out of his reach.

Videl had raced out only moments before, after receiving an urgent call on her wrist communicator that the mayor was being held hostage. And, since her father hadn't showed up, she took up the task.

Gohan had tried to sneak his way out to go along as well, but Miss Beakman had denied his request to leave for the "restroom" and told him to get back into his seat.

So basically, he was stuck.

__

I've got to get over there before it's too late_!_ Gohan growled mentally, glancing again toward the door.

"Zee and zy larger, saner brood of female, male. Zee in zy athletes, moral, spiritual; South, North, East, Vest. Zee and zy moral vealth and civilization until vich zy proudest material civilization _must_ remain in vain," Miss Beakman read aloud.

Brows furrowed, Gohan looked again to the door, then back to his teacher, absent-mindedly beginning to tap his foot on the floor.

"Zee and zy all supplying, all-enclosing vorship—zee in no single bible, savior merely, zy saviors countless, latent vithin zyself, equal to any, divine as any."

His foot starting to tap ever harder, Gohan took another quick look in the door's direction.

"Zese! Zese in zee certain to come today I do prophesy! Well, Mr. Vitman vas certainly very—"

"Earthquake!!" Eresa suddenly shrieked, finally noticing that the entire room was rumbling violently.

Gohan blinked, noticing the shaking as well, and looked down at his tapping foot.

"Children! Children! Please, don't panic!" Miss Beakman said over the yells and hollers that filled the room. "Everyone get on zee floor and cover your necks vith your hands!"

All the students quickly dropped to the floor and got under their desks, doing as their teacher had told.

Gohan got up out of his seat, and the rumbling immediately stopped.

"All _right_!" he said triumphantly, running down the stairs and out the classroom door.

________________________________________________________________________________

Cyris's eyes snapped open, feeling everything around her shaking violently. She instinctively leapt to her feet and stood into a fighter stance.

As soon as the rumbling quickly faded, she began to slowly scan the area around her, still keeping her stance.

...Keep healthy posters...Food pyramid...a refrigerator...connected bathroom...a cushioned bench...

"A...a health clinic?" she said questioning, furrowing her brows.

But...had it been another dream? No, it couldn't have been! This time it was just too real! The images were still fresh in her mind...vivid...everything she remembered so clearly! She could still smell the dry, dusty desert air in her nostrils, feel the hot winds blowing across her skin.

And the anger... The _fury_ of seeing them picked off one by one. Killed by that...that horrid brat! Oh, she would make him pay _dearly_ for what he'd—

The breath caught in the back of her throat, and the hair on the back of Cyris's neck prickled.

"What the Heck..." she murmured. "Wha...what am I..._thinking_?"

Cyris's pulse was pounding in her eardrums now, and she could feel the tips of her fingers twitch. She quickly pulled out of her stance and stood up straight, glancing around the small room a second time.

"And how did I get here?"

She knew something happened...she remembered a face...a pair of blue-gray eyes, terrified eyes.

The school cafeteria! That's where it happened! So that meant she was obviously in the school's health clinic.

...But why?

Cyris stared sternly down at the floor, trying her hardest to bring the events back to her...

__

An evil smirk slowly swept onto Cyris's lips, and she pulled Jessica so close to her face that the tips of their noses touched.

Cyris's voice lowered. "And do you remember...what I said?"

Suddenly, in an instant almost too fast for Jessica to comprehend, Cyris's pupils slit vertically, almost catlike, and the oddly high-pitched, raspy cackle came to her ears as she said, "Now you shall become part of me—the perfect warrior_!"_

Her hands instantly flew up over her mouth to keep herself from screaming out.

"No..." Cyris said through her hands. "No No No..." She shook her head vigorously as she chanted, absently taking steps backward toward the door.

A short yelp escaped her when her back finally hit the door to the infirmary room, surprising her. After a moment she leaned back into it, and slowly sank down to the floor, feeling dizziness overcome her ability to remain on her feet.

The vision of Jessica's horrified expression kept coming back to her..._haunting_ her. Over and over again. And those words...that had come out of her very own throat...

__

"Now you shall become part of me—the perfect warrior_!"_

"No...it _couldn't_ have...It _couldn't_ have been _me_..."

But deep down she knew, that it _had_ been her. The thought made her feel nauseous, and her head was swimming in a sea of endless images from the cafeteria...of Jessica's petrified face.

"What's ha-happening to m-me?" Cyris managed to choke out through a trembling voice, her shoulders and hands shaking.

"...I have to get out of here."

________________________________________________________________________________

Mrs. Knox scurried down the hallway back to her office, flinging open the glass doors.

She'd been in the Teacher's Lounge for only a second, just to steal a cup of coffee, when the freak earthquake hit. She'd left her only patient alone in the office, and with an earthquake, God only knows what happened while she was gone!

Having trouble catching her breath, the school nurse finally reached the door to the back room. She latched onto the handle, and hastily opened the door.

And her eyes instantly fell unto an empty bench in the back of the room.

Mrs. Knox blinked in bewilderment for a few seconds, her lips parted.

"She's...gone?"

________________________________________________________________________________

Well, there you all are! Chapter 7 is finally DONE! *trumpets sound in the background* ...What the...? *looks around, blinking, and sees nothing* Umn...O...K... Ehem, anyway, I'm SO _SORRY_ it took so long to get this chapter done! This was a really hard spot for me, and with high school and all, well, can you see not my plight? I hope you'll forgive me and continue reading! I'm hoping to get at _least_ 100 reviews at the completion of this fic. So, my wonderful reviewers, KEEP WITH ME! There will be more sooner than this last chapter! I SWEAR! Things should REALLY be picking back up now.

And thank you all again for sticking with me. Life's really screwy right now. @_@

~KASH


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Chapter-o Eight-o! Yeah-o! I though, heck, you people have been so _darn_ _patient_—why not put up another chapter? ^_^ This chapter isn't meant to be long. It's meant as a cliffhanger _only_! I was in the mood to get people annoyed with me today! Hahahaha! *takes out her tape recorder and presses "play"; it immediately says, "I don't own any of the regular characters you'd find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z. They are copyright of Akira Toriyama. Cyris, Laura, Sita, Nyome, Dora, Meah, and Valerie are KASH Copyright."* Enjoy!

~KASH

Mr. Popo looked around anxiously, shuffling his feet around in his pointed shoes.

Dende was off visiting Koren for a few hours and Piccolo was training in the desert. So, the ancient genie had the entire Lookout all to himself....

...For the moment.

"Hello, my good friend."

Mr. Popo jumped slightly, then turned around, sighing. "You _know_ I don't like that."

"Oh, then you know that's the only reason I do it."

A warm smile spread across Mr. Popo's black face. "You are a strange one, Sita."

The kai shrugged, smirking. "Well, what would you expect? My brother's just an old stick-in-the-mud, Grand Kai's as hopelessly lost as they come, and the four other kais are _always_ bickering between one another _every_ time they meet. _Especially_ those North and West."

Mr. Popo chuckled, shaking his head. "I suppose you _do_ have a point."

Sita put her hands on her hips, cocking her eyebrow oddly at her genie friend. "Are you just going to let a _lady_ stand around all eternity or are you going to offer her a seat, Mr. Polite?"

"Yes, yes. This way," Mr. Popo said chuckling, leading the kai into a small marble outdoor parlor surrounded by the Lookout's largest garden, not too far away.

"So, how have you been since our last visit? Well, I hope?" Sita chirped, sitting down in one of the fine white chairs in front of a marble table.

"Fine, as usual. Nothing much goes on around here anymore," the genie replied, an almost bored tone in his comment.

"And Dende? Is he living up to his expectations of Guardian of the Earth?"

"Oh yes!" Mr. Popo said. "He's quite good company." His eyes saddened. "Though, he will never be able to replace Kami..."

"This is true. I, too, miss Kami a great deal," Sita sighed, somewhat somberly.

"Well, how about yourself? Are you well?" Mr. Popo interjected.

Sita's expression quickly darkened, and her ever-dominant smile faded.

Mr. Popo knew that look all too well...and he never liked it when it was so clearly visible on Sita.

"Not as well as I wish I were," she said flatly. "I'm afraid things haven't been going _quite_ as I've planned."

Mr. Popo straightened in his seat. "Do you mean with..."

"Yes, I dare say," Sita answered grimly. "The bonds that I put in place seem to be breaking."

"But...but how...could that be _possible_?"

"I have a couple of hunches," Sita began, leaning back in her seat. "But the one that seems to stick out the most clearly in my mind is due to the fact that they're... The second stronghold I put into place. You remember?"

Mr. Popo nodded. "Yes. I can certainly see why that would present a problem."

"I just...thought it would have been so obvious to him!" the kai growled, her eyes catching a small flicker of anger.

Her genie friend nodded kindly.

"Well, on to the real problem..."

Mr. Popo's complexion went slightly pale at hearing these words.

"You certainly know, after all the times I've asked you to secretly watch the reincarnations I've sent to this planet, that the power the soul possessed is passed down to the carrier."

"...Yes."

"Well, to make things worse, the carrier has much more fire in her than I planned—which goes back to my theory."

She paused for a moment, closing her eyes, then continued.

"If Cell is able to free himself, his added strength with Cyris's is going to take their power to an _unfathomable_ level...far more powerful than I would have _ever_ thought to be comprehensible."

Mr. Popo's eyes went wide, and a frightened look spread across his features.

Sita took in a long breath. "Out of the six barriers I originally put into place, only four of them still remain. Weakening by the minute, but they remain..."

"There has to be something we can do!" Mr. Popo jumped in, a squeak in his voice.

A tiny, though forced smirk appeared on Sita's lips. "I'm sorry to say, Mr. Popo, that there isn't a _thing_ we can do. Cell is going to 'break out' no matter what we try."

Mr. Popo slumped back in his seat, with a look of complete shock and hopelessness. "This..just can't be, Sita...if he..._he_ is able to reemerge...then we are all doomed..."

"I guess I now see what my brother feared—sending Cell back into the Mortal World, not to mention into its past, would yet again change the entire fate of this Earth."

Sita stood from the table, and glanced back at her frightened friend. "But do not give up all hope just yet, Mr. Popo," she reassured, smiling her mysterious smile. "Goku's coming home."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Woo-hoo! Are things beginning to get interesting? I think so! What did YOU, the reader, think? Interesting? Dumb? Wish I never wrote this thing? Let me know! YOU, the reader, have the power to help this continue! I'll continue this ONLY if I get more reviews! And some IDEAS! My brain's running on almost nill here! Thanks!

~KASH


	9. Chapter 9

****

Warning!: The rating on this fic is currently a PG-13 rating, mostly for language. It may, as a result of further foul language and extreme graphic violence in later chapters, be moved up to a R rating. So please, this fic is for the mature (preferably ages 15 and up). If you cannot _take_ the contents of this fic, or if you have any problems with it whatsoever—take it up with me, KASH, the author—not the FF.net staff.

  
  
Author's Note: Ah, you know the drill, folks. Re-editing in progress and all that shiz. Copyrights--I don't own any of the regular characters you'd find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z. They are copyright of Akira Toriyama, and Funimation Entertainment. Cyris, Laura, Sita, Nayome, Meah, and Valerie are mine, KASH, the author. I am writing this work of fiction purely for the amusement of myself and others, and am gaining no profit off of it what-so-ever. Blah, boring note, ended.

* * *

"He-YAYAYAYAYA!"

Goten quickly pulled in both his fists, back-flipped, spun around, and kicking wildly at a spot in the air. He sprung back a step, and began to punch madly at the desert dust that he'd kicked up which hung in the still air.

All of a sudden, Goten stopped in mid-punch, and whipped his head around. An eager smile instantly crept onto his lips. She was here!

Cyris promptly landed a few yards away from him, immediately swinging her backpack off and onto the ground.

"Cyris!" Goten called out happily, and Cyris jerked her head up to stare straight at him.

Smiling like a maniac, Goten hastily bounded over and skid to a halt to stand in front of her. "Hi!" he chirped up at her.

Cyris blinked down at him. "…Hey Goten. You're out here awfully early."

"Heh, you too! I was just getting some extra practice while Mom was out shopping," Goten said with a giggle, and then his smile faltered, and dissolved as he looked up at her.

Her eyes, they looked so...hollow... Not to mention she was still wearing her contacts. And she wasn't wearing her usual training clothes today, either—dark green T-shirt with black along the sleeves, somewhat baggy black jeans, and worn out, flat black sneakers.

"Are you feeling bad again today, Cyris?"

Cyris gave him a smile, which probably looked a touch frailer than she would've liked it to have been. "A little, but nothin' to worry about. I'm fine."

"...OK," Goten said, though something in her voice just didn't seem too convincing.

"Well, since we're both here, why don't we train?" she suggested, changing the subject. "How's your speed coming?"

Goten took a few steps back, and within the blink of an eye, he was standing at her right, then at her left, and finally back to where he'd stood, a playful grin on his lips.

"_Very_ nice," Cyris said, raising her eyebrows. "You've been doing some extra training on the sly, haven't you?"

Goten broke out in a big wholly grin, giving a nod.

"How about the ki techniques I showed you?"

"Eheh, I still can't get the hang of them yet..."

Cyris tucked some of her hair behind her ear. "Hmm, what about just regular ki blasts?"

Goten nodded. "Uh-huh! I can do those!" He lifted up his hand, and formed a glowing ball within his palm. "See?"

Cyris folded her arms over her chest. "OK then, you've got the speed down, and the ki control needs a little work. But all in all I'd say you've made excellent progress."

Goten scratched the back of his head, another childish grin plastered onto his face.

"So..." Cyris unfolded her arms, and stood into a fighting stance, "I think now we should get down to the _real_ training."

The boy gave a quick nod, and got into a stance himself.

For a moment, the two stood silently, not moving the slightest inch from their positions, eyes locked. Then they vanished, their only presence notable being the clouds of dust that swirled up along the desert plain occasionally.

Goten was the first to reappeared, landing back onto the ground with a light tap. He watched the thick dust clouds intently as they slowly swirled in the low wind, beginning to settle...

Cyris quickly lunged forth from them, her fist drawn back. She sped the length of the plain, and made a fast punch at him, but Goten flipped out of the way.

Cyris went after him, and a storm of punches immediately broke out between them, none of them ever hitting their mark, either deflected to the side of blocked by an opposing punch.

Abruptly, the two broke away, skidding on their heels to opposite ends of the plain, almost directly back to where they started.

"Heh, you're getting tough, kid," Cyris commented, smirking.

Goten grinned slyly back, lowering his head. "Hn."

Quickly, he vaulted himself forward toward the teen, and made another punch at her, but Cyris quickly side-stepped his attack with ease. In one smooth, fluid motion, she rammed her knee right into his perfectly exposed ribs.

Goten was sent flying, spinning head over heels through the air along the field. Scrambling, his hands managed to grab at the dirt, and he clawed at it, but only succeeded in pulling himself closer to the ground. He tumbled roughly through the dry dirt a few feet, and finally came to a stop.

Cyris lowered her leg back down, watching his still form with his face down in the dirt.

He wasn't moving... Maybe she'd overdone it on that last one--

Slowly, Goten got back to his feet. His orange and blue gi was torn in few places, and he was covered with small scratches and dust, clumps of the desert earth in his spiky black hair.

A snarl, which seemed incredibly uncharacteristic of him, curled his lips as he looked back toward Cyris, and his hands balled into shaking fists.

Cyris furrowed her brows as she watched him, laxing out of her stance a little. "What's he...doing?"

Suddenly, Goten reared back his head, and an ear-shattering cry rang out from his throat. Golden light erupted around him, consumed him, and the ground domed out and splitting beneath his feet.

Cyris's eyes went wide, and the next second a wave of ki slammed into her, which she wasn't at all prepared for, and she was knocked forcefully off her feet back onto the ground. Hastily she sat up, and her eyes were immediately drawn back to the light.

But the light had died down greatly. Now, there was a figure within it...the golden glow radiated from him.

He's a Super Saiyan....

But he wasn't just _any_ Super Saiyan... The way his hair stood straight in the air, his bangs parted at the side. And the eyes....the same fiery green, merciless and cold...

The air caught in Cyris's throat, and the hair on the back of her neck prickled, feeling a cold chill slink up her spine.

It was _him_...

'Goku...'

The golden aura flickered, and in a flash it dispersed. Goten let out a shocked gasp, and fell to his knees and hands. Sweat dripped from his face, and he panted heavily.

"C...Cyris..." He lifted his head, still breathing heavily. "What...what just...happened...?"

Her eyes remained transfixed on him, wide and terror stricken. She didn't make the slightest movement, almost like an animal trying to evade a predator by not drawing attention to itself, hoping not to be seen...

"...Cyris...?" He unsteadily got to his feet, and began to take a step forward towards her--

"Goku!! That's who you are!!" Cyris abruptly exclaimed, almost accusingly; the words spilled out of her mouth before she had the chance to really comprehend what she was saying.

Goten blinked at her, and stopped short. "Cyris…what are you talking about?"

"Don't act like I'm stupid!!" she yelled. That angry pang had begun to rise in her chest, the same one that had when she first met Gohan. "I know you're Goku!! You have to be!!"

Goten looked hurt. "...Goku was my Dad..."

Cyris's mouth dropped open, her expression going blank. "Your...your _Dad_...?"

Blinding phosphorescent green swept over her eyes, clouded every inch of her vision. She felt as though she were floating, unattached..._paralyzed_.

What is this...?

Then it came, almost on a queue--the voice. It had a lifeless, metallic droll mixed within it... But she knew this voice, all too well…

'You are my Ultimate achievement... You are completely superior too all of your preceding models... You are the Perfect Weapon_...'_

It switched back. Goten was again trying to slowly making his way over to her now, a worried look on his face.

"Cyris? What are you—"

'Your soul purpose is to destroy... Destroy all existing life on this planet, and any other...'

Goten was still walking closer to her, he was only a few feet away...

"NO!" Cyris yelled, swiping her hand through the air. "St-Stay away from me!!"

"But...Cyris..." Goten whimpered, stopping and taking a small step back.

'Your soul purpose is to destroy...Destroy all life...'

Cyris could feel the darkness edging ever closer; it was consuming her.

No! She couldn't let herself be taken...not again...

But...it was calling out to her from the dark depths...soothingly…temptingly…and she wanted it...

'You must destroy him...Destroy him...'

Cyris was shaking with terror and confusion; she could feel it. Every nerve ending in her body was screaming not to fight it—for her to give into the cold darkness...to the commands…

It felt…suddenly, natural to her.

So why was she still fighting it?

'Destroy him...Destroy him...'

"N...no, I..."

'DESTROY HIM...'

"SHUT UUUUPPP!!!!" Cyris screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to drown out the echoing voices in her mind. She gripped the sides of her head, hunching forward. "JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!"

Cyris's head snapped up, and she looked over toward Goten. He looked…literally terrified. A small whimper crept over his lips, and he put his hands behind him, ready to begin to back away from her.

G...Goten...!

Cyris quickly, but shakily brought her first two fingers pointed to the center of her forehead, and in a flicker of light, she disappeared completely from the spot, and her ki signature vanished.

Goten continued to stare, motionless, at the spot where Cyris was only a moment ago. His mouth twitched, and a shaky breath escaped him, tears spilling out of his eyes and down his cheeks.

* * *

"But _why_? You still haven't said _why_, Aunt Laura!" 

Her aunt turned to her, her arms bulging with hastily packed suitcases, loose garments hanging over them. "Cyris, I told you, we have to go! Get the rest of your stuff now!"

"It's already in the car, Laura," Cyris said promptly, putting her hand on her hip.

Laura stuffed the load in her arms into the trunk of the old, rusted blue Saturn, and looked over at her almost nine year old niece. "OK then. You, get into the car. I'll be back. If you see anything, _anything_ that doesn't look..._human_, I want you to get under the car and _stay_ _there_, got it?"

Cyris blinked. "What? But Aunt Laura—"

Her aunt rushed past her up the front steps, and ran down the hall into the kitchen.

Cyris sighed, rolling her eyes. "This whole thing's some sorta prank. Monsters eating up whole cities, pah."

She went down the steps, mumbling something closely resembling, "There's no such _thing_ as monsters," and opened up the side passenger door, took a seat, and closed it. She let out another frustrated sigh, and loosely crossed her arms across her chest, staring out the driver's side window.

Across the street, a man and a woman were frantically stuffing household belongings into the back seat of an SUV, and scurrying back into their apartment to grab more.

Cyris looked through the front window. Two men jumped into a black Toyota truck, a couch, a couple tables and chairs, and sleeping bags in the back, and drove madly down the street.

Cyris raised her eyebrows, and got up in her seat. Down the street, several other cars were being packed, and immediately driving off.

"This whole 'Nikkeitown Monster' thing...it's not _really_ real..." She got onto her knees, and swerved around in her seat to look through the back window. And, as to be expected, dozens of other cars and trucks lined the streets, packing up, and shipping out.

"...Is it?"

SLAM!

Cyris jumped, turning jerkily back in her seat, and saw her aunt pulling the strap of her seat belt, and, with fumbling hands, buckling it.

Cyris breathed a sigh, and sat down, buckling her seat belt as well.

As soon as the latch clicked, her aunt floored it, and took off like a bat out of Purgatory down the street.

* * *

Cyris shifted uncomfortably, groaning sleepily. The rough, scrapping texture on her face and on her shoulder—it was beginning to bother her. 

She sluggishly forced her arm out from under her, and pushed herself up with it, moving her head—

Ow ow! Headache!

Her hands instantly flew to her temples, wincing. "Aaaah, man..." Cyris moaned irritably, cracking her eyes open, sniffing. "Where...where am I?"

A strong blast of cold wind blew into her face and bare arms, snaking its way up her short sleeves and up her pants legs.

She clamped her eyes shut, gritting her teeth. _Man, it's _cold_!_

Cyris tediously got to her feet, and crossed her arms across her chest, rubbing them. She turned to get her front out of the wind...

...and saw that the ground was over 100 feet below her.

"Holy—!" she gasped, so taken aback that she tripped over her own two feet, and fell onto the rough concrete ground on her rear.

After a moment that she was able to regain her composure, she got back to her feet, and timidly walked over to the edge, and peaked down.

"Hm... I'm on topuva building, then," she said to herself, and scoffed at herself for being frightened by only being a _couple_ feet off the ground.

"But, how'd I _get_ up here?"

The last thing Cyris remembered...was when she was with Goten. Something had happened... He'd gone Super Saiyan, that was it.

Then she remembered green, radiant green... And that voice...

…Who was that?

She let out an aggravated sort of growl. She _really_ didn't like all of this. Not in the least.

Cyris squinted down at the street below, trying to make out the seemingly microscopic letters written on the signs on top of the tiny stores along the sidewalk.

"Wait a second..." She narrowed her eyes to the point that they were merely thin slits, and then she blinked, an almost amused smirk sneaking onto her lips. "I'll be... It's Daidaiiro

Boulevard."

Daidaiiro Boulevard, conveniently enough, was only five blocks away from her aunt's apartment. She, Meah, and Valerie would almost _always_ walk around here after school and on the weekends when they hung out—the best stores and shops were always located here. And, having Meah the Shopaholic as a best friend, you'd know where _all_ the best places to go to shop were, regardless if you needed the information or not.

Another blast of wind hit Cyris in the face, and the cold finally got the better of her.

Shivering, Cyris moved away from the ledge, picking up her backpack that was near where she laid a moment ago, and walked toward the back corner of the roof. She peered down the side, and after making sure the area below was deserted, hopped off.

She landed a second or so later on the sidewalk, and, nonchalantly, shifting her backpack on her shoulder, began to head toward home.

Her eyes practically glued to her sneakers scuffing along the rough, gray pavement of the sidewalk, Cyris could only keep thinking back to the past week's events.

She'd always had those weird visions, for as long as she could remember... Ever since the accident.

But, this week definitely topped the cake. The visions becoming so _vivid_ in her mind, beginning to really _know_ who all those "mystery fighters" were at the Cell Games—social and hereditary background—well, all but Son Gohan, anyway.

Though, that only covered the visions.

Four times she'd found herself doing something she had no _idea_ why or what possessed her to suddenly act upon it. And all four of those times were acts of violence... On people she didn't even _know_—that Jessica Jazawitz girl, that kid Gohan from her class, and Goten...

Goten...Goku's son. Why hadn't she _thought_ of that? It was so _obvious_! But _Gohan_ was Goku's only son. Where'd Goten come into the picture? Not to mention he was a Super Saiyan already, too.

But that all was irrelevant. That didn't _really_ have anything to do with her setting off...did it?

No, that made no sense.

But _why_ would she have gone off on him? On Jessica, and Gohan? She didn't know _them _either.

But... What would happen if something like this happened to someone she _did_ care about? Taree, Valerie, Meah—any of them could be susceptible to her sudden spurts of rage.

Would she really loose herself so much into her rage that she would end up harming someone she was so close to?

"Meah! Look _out_!"

Cyris jerked her head up just in time to have a giant wave of white packages and bags engulf her, and, dumbfounded, she toppled backwards with all the bags and boxes to the ground, hitting the pavement roughly.

Cyris was just about ready to strangle whoever had just ran into her, when their voices came to ear.

"Shit! I'm _sooo_ sorry!"

"Jesus, Meah! It would help if you'd watch what you're _doing_! Runnin' into people with all yer friggen stuff!"

Cyris quickly craned her head up, and her eyebrows raised.

"You a'ight down there?" Valerie turned down to her. She blinked, and a surprised expression came over her features. "Cyris!"

Cyris smiled meekly up at the two teens, a pair of poofy pink handcuffs dangling over her ear. "Nice to see you too, Val." She plucked the handcuffs off of her ear, and held them out in front of her, quirking an eyebrow. "Handcuffs…?"

"Those would be mine…" Meah giggled, cocking her head to the side. "I couldn't resist! They were just too cute!"

"…." Cyris shook her head, sighing an upside-down mushroom cloud.

* * *

There was an uncomfortable silence as the three girls sat together at a small table in _La Marie's Caf_. Since they'd all gotten their drinks—frapachinos, cappichinos, the mix—none of them had uttered a word, which was beginning to grind on Meah's sensitive nerves. 

So, being the one who usually always started up the conversations, she, well, started one.

"So...Cy-Chan, what's up?" she questioned, taking a small sip of her frapachino.

"Heh… That's sortuva loaded question," Cyris replied, staring down into her capachino, watching the light brown liquid slowly swirl within its paper cup imprisonment.

Valerie took a swig of her own drink, and looked over the brim of the cup at Cyris's direction. "How's that?"

Breaking her gaze from the swirling liquid, Cyris took a sip, and set it back down on the table, leaning back in her seat. "To be perfectly honest, I think I'm either schizophrenic or I've completely lost my mind."

Meah blinked her brilliant green eyes at her, cocking her head to the side a little bit. "Umn, wouldn't that be the same thing though?"

Valerie rolled her eyes, and gazed back toward Cyris. "Like, you mean you're hearing voices and stuff like that?"

"Sometimes," Cyris said, sipping on her capachino. "I'm seeing things too. I think it's stuff from the Cell Games. Stuff with that kid and Cell, when they were fighting."

Meah blinked. "But, didn't you say you never _saw_ the Cell Games?" she inquired, quirking a thin blue eyebrow.

"Uh-huh," Cyris answered, curling some hair back behind her ear nonchalantly. "I didn't."

"There anything else?" Valerie said, furrowing her brows.

"Yeah. Sometimes it's like, one minute I'm doing one thing, and next second I'm pinning somebody up against a wall or something."

Valerie's expression darkened. "Pinning people up into _walls…_? Why? Did they get you mad or something?"

"Hell if I know," she snorted. "And not to forget what happened Monday..."

Meah nodding, remembering all too well what had happened. She straightened, looking worriedly over at her friend. "So you think it might have something to do with...what happened, maybe? Like, a mental lapse, or something like that?"

Cyris shot Meah a look, taking another gulp from the paper cup. "Wish I knew. I'm seriously beginning to think I'm, like, possessed or something..."

"Aww, how very sad. Sounds to me like poor widdle Cywis is having a widdle mental _bweak_ _down_."

Cyris jumped in her seat, and her head instantly whipped up.

Looming like a vulture over Valerie's shoulder stood a tall, cocky looking teenage boy with slicked forward, light blue hair almost the same shade as Meah's, and dark, forest green eyes. An antagonistic smirk was plastered onto his face, and his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket.

Yukio Mizuiro, Meah's older brother.

Cyris immediately glared up into his eyes, a sneer curling her lips. "Back off, Yukio. I'm warning you, I'm seriously _not_ in the mood."

Yukio raised his arms in the air in a fake defensive gesture. "Oh oh! I'm _so_ sorry! Gonna go all mental on me now?"

The corner of Cyris's eye twitched, and her hands balled into tight fists.

"Stop it, Yukio!" Meah said warningly over to him, getting to her feet. "I mean it!"

"Oohhh, and what are _you_ going to do about it?" Yukio retorted, narrowing his eyes at his little sister.

Meah let out a huff, narrowing her own eyes at him.

But Yukio's smirk only broadened, and he looked back down at Cyris. "Not that that's much of a surprise anyway. Maybe she's just giving into the family roots, huuh? I mean your mother from what I understand was a pretty crazy bitch herself, wasn't she? Or was that just stupid?"

Cyris was out of her chair and up in his face in the blink of an eye, her nose not even an inch from his. "You better watch your goddamn mouth, you _bastard_," she hissed into his face through clenched teeth.

"Geheheh…should I now?" Yukio raised his eyebrows a little bit, lowering his eyelids only slightly to give him a more mischievous sort of appearance. "I'm not exactly the kid of a prostitute, now am I? Hm? So who exactly is the bastard _now_?"

The only thing keeping her in her spot and not grinding Yukio's dumb grinning face into the floor was Valerie and Meah's grips on her arms. Not that it did any good strength-wise, but it wasn't worth flinging them clear into another continent just to beat in that blue-haired Neanderthal's face.

"Cyris! Don't! Just don't listen to him! Sit down!" Meah pleaded. "Please don't listen to him! You know he's just a prick." Meah shot her brother a look, and he simply flashed an even wider grin onto his cheeks.

Cyris, fuming, forced herself to be seated. She kept her eyes on him from her low seat, grinding her teeth behind closed lips.

"Heh..that's right. Just be a good lil girl and listen to the _sane_ ones, right? They know what they're actually talking about—well…more than you do apparently."

"Why don't you just piss off already?" Valerie sneered, narrowing her deep ultramarine eyes up at him.

Yukio ignored her completely, and focused his attentions back on Cyris. "Hey, just wondering, but, y'know, aren't you due back to the mental institute right about now?" He turned, and pointed his thumb to the street. "I thought I saw one of their trucks drive by looking for--"

They didn't know. None of them knew what it was like. It had been almost five years since she got out of that insane asylum…and quite frankly, it was one of the few places that Cyris never _ever_ wanted to be stuck in again. Stuck behind that enprisoning glass, in that cold steril room… Being able to see out…to see _freedom_, but yet it was so far out of reach. That in itself was enough to drive someone mad.

The voice swept back up into her head, her consciousness, flooding out all other sounds around her, bellowing one, simple command…

'KILL!!'

Then something deep, deep down inside of her…snapped.

"I'M NOT GOING CCRRAAZZYY!!!"

With a backhanded slam, the table was sent flying across the café at blinding speed, a complete blur, and it smashed into the back wall, shattering itself and the bricks it made contact with into dust; an explosion of splinters and bits of brick.

With a yell of rage escaping her throat, Cyris bolted forward, slamming hard into Yukio, and in the blink of an eye ran him up into the corner of the café near the door. She drew back her fist, a ball of energy immediately forming in her palm, and without a moment's hesitation she thrust it forward, right toward his face...

Suddenly, Meah's high pitched scream rang out in Cyris's ears. Immediately her arm lurched to a stop. The ki ball remained only the slightest inch away from the tip of Yukio's nose.

Yukio stared cross-eyed down his nose at the ki ball, and his mouth line drooped. His complexion instantly paled, and eyes rolled up into the back of his head.

Cyris quickly recoiled her hands, and the teenage boy slid down the wall to the floor, out cold.

"I..." Cyris tried to choke out, but the air kept catching in the back of her throat. "I...I didn't..."

She whipped her head around to look at Meah, who had an expression conveying no less than horror. Slowly, shakily, Cyris rotated her head back around, and gazed down at Yukio's unmoving body, slumped up on the floor.

What did I just do…? I...I almost killed _him... And I really _wanted _to…This...it's not real... None of this can be _real_... It can't be... It _can't be_..._

This time, the darkness would not take refuge over her. She was left there, in the silent café, every frightful eye glued to her, wallowing in her own twisted misfortune.

No outside force had intervened this time. This time, it had been her own rage that had let fly, and almost caused death. Death to someone whom she'd known for years, that she wouldn't have dreamed to raise a fist to, even if she hated him as much as she did. She never _ever_ had any desire to kill anyone. Never…

Run.

Cyris thrust herself forward and smashed through the glass doors of the café, sending down a storm of clear shards to rain down onto the gray ground. She swerved herself around, and sprinted down the street as if the devil himself were on her heels.

No turning back now. She had to get out of here. Had to get away, from everything. Escape everything, everyone.

She vaulted herself into the air, sending herself soaring upward into the orange painted sky. And then, she vanished.

"H...Holy Christ in Heaven..." the clerk behind the counter stuttered, his eyes still plastered to the spot where the teenage girl had smashed through the doors, glass littered all over the ground.

Suddenly, Meah snapped out of her shock, and remembering her unconscious brother in the corner ran over to his side. She put her hands on his shoulders and began to shake him. "Yukio! Yukio wake up!"

Yukio didn't respond in the least. He continued to fall back limply into the wall, the same flat, swirl-eyed expression on his face.

"Yukio…" Meah quickly swerved around, looking over her shoulder. "Valerie! Call—"

She stopped, and blinked. "Valerie?" she said in a small, questioning voice.

But Valerie was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Ahh, well there's the re-edited version of Chapter 9. More glimpses into Cyris's dark past have been added into this, if you haven't picked up on them. They're there. Mmhm… And yes, I know it seems like this whole thing with revising the entire fic is sort of--how you say--"beating a dead horse, in attempt to get it to move", but hey, at least it's some sort of progress. And besides, I've started writing down parts for future chapters here and there…So perhaps if the fic still seems to be getting anywhere after I finish going through and fixing, then I plan on working harder on its completion. So again, for all of you who have stuck through it all for this fic, I thank you. 

-KASH


	10. Chapter 10

**

* * *

Warning!: The rating on this fiction is currently a PG-13 rating, mostly for language. It may, as a result of further foul language and extreme graphic violence in later chapters, be moved up to a R rating. So please, this story is for the mature (preferably ages 15 and up). If you cannot _take_ the contents of this fiction, or if you have any problems with it whatsoever—take it up with me, KASH, the author—not the FF.net staff. Thank you, and have a nice day.**   
  
Author's Note: 'ello all you happy peoples! I've finally done it! I've gotten my ass back to work on CB! For now I'm trying to revise through the earlier chapters, adding in new scenes and clue-ins and whatnot. I _will_ be doing them out of order, obviously. I felt as though it'd be easier to tackle the chapters I thought didn't need quite as much work first. And now--copyrights! All original characters, or references from any character from Dragon Ball Z are copyright Akira Toriyama. Kitsurubami, and Aramao who appear as "guest stars" for this chapter are copyright their respective owners (who I can't remember at the moment, but it isn't me!). Cyris, Laura, Dora, Sita, and other un-recognizable characters you see in the text are copyright of me, KASH. Take, and die.

* * *

The glass shards sparkled in the fading light, gleaming orange and gold, flickering, twirling, falling slowly to the gray, concrete ground.

It was almost like time, for that instant had stopped, as the glass fell around her, flew with her through the still air, shimmering in the sunset glow.

No... I have to RUN!

Toes scrapping the pavement, the rubber from her sole grinding roughly, she forcefully swerved herself around to face the length of the sidewalk, which seemed to stretch on for miles without end. She brought her other foot down, and with a burst of adrenaline, she broke into a mad, scrambling run.

Run run run Run RUN RUN_!!_

Almost clawing at the air for speed, she hastened her pace, everything passing by in a blur.

Have to get away...Have to get away from everything_!_

She quickly bent her knee, and sprang off the ground, into the air, soaring high above the streets. Higher and higher she continued to soar, above the stores, dwindling over the buildings and skyscrapers of the congested city.

And suddenly, abruptly, she vanished.

* * *

Slowly the rain streaked down the car window, like veins upon skin of glass, streams of clear blood, flowing along across the dark backdrop of the speeding highway, and the black pitch skyline. 

Another bored sigh escaped the child's lips. She shifted in her seat uncomfortably, her back stiff from sitting for so long.

"Aunt Laura..." Cyris whined, turning around to face her aunt. "Are we gonna stop soon? I'm sick of sitting..."

"Yes, yes Cyris," her aunt spoke, still staring out the front window over her steering wheel, driving the car further into the ominous black storm. "There should be a place to stop soon... I think we're almost to Briston..."

Cyris cocked her head slightly, and blinked at her Aunt Laura. "You _think_? Laura, don't you know where you're going?"

"Hey hey! Who's the one driving here?" Laura retorted, sounding a bit agitated, though her main focus still seemed to be on the densely packed highway.

"You are...?"

"Yeah, so when you're sixteen and you _get_ a driver's license you can judge my driving all you want, right?" she finished snippily, leaning back into her seat.

Cyris sighed. Obviously the many hours they were on the road was beginning to grind on Laura's nerves as well.

Adjusting her seat-belt, the girl reached forward to the dashboard and flicked on the radio. The green luminous lights and lettering flickered on, and the radio cracked, full of static. Cyris was just about to change the station, when some incomprehensible jabber managed to etch it's way through the shattered signal.

"_Zzrrt—_entirely empty, Phil. All that seems to be a remnant sign of anyone being here would be_—zzzzzt-cht—_and other loose garments lying all_—zrrrcht—_streets."

Laura's head jerked, and turned her hazel eyes toward the radio. "Hold on, keep it here..."

Cyris recoiled her hand, and leaned away from the dashboard, into her seat, a somewhat disgruntled look about her.

"Recent sightings report that the creature—_zzzkrr-cht_—heading southwest, along Routes 47—_zrrrrrcht_—nearing Sok—_zzzzrt_."

"Shit, c'mon, say it again!" Laura said nervously, glaring at the radio, then back to the road before her.

"Mar—_zzzzrt_—tsu, and Makuto Towns are advised to begin evac—_zzrrrtt_—procedures immediately. I repeat: The cre—_zzzrrrtt-chk_—ing southwest, along Routes 47, 56, and 93, near Sokatsu Villa. Maroo, Scatsu, and Makuto Towns are advised to evacuate immediately."

Before another word could be spoken, Laura suddenly twisted the steering wheel, and the tiny Saturn swerved and spun wildly through the lanes of heavy traffic.

Cyris let out a shocked cry, and almost as sudden as Laura's stunt, the car had made it to the furthest lane on the other side of the road.

"What the Hell are you doing?!" Cyris hollered, glaring angrily up at her aunt.

"Shit, shit, shit...." Laura chanted under her breath, looming over the steering wheel, pushing her foot down harder on the gas, riding the car up to the bumper of the van in front of them.

Normally with an outburst like that, on Cyris's part, she would've been grounded for a week. But it seemed as though her aunt hadn't fully noticed.

"Aunt Laura?" Cyris said questioningly, lowering her brows.

Then, for a split instant, the corner of Cyris's eye caught the text of a sign as it passed hastily by her window...

Route 56

An ominous, chilling dread crept silently through her veins, her blood running cold, and the hair prickled up on the back of her neck.

"W...we're on Route 56..."

Quickly, with an eerily instinctive sense, Cyris's eyes snapped toward the front window, and suddenly time stopped.

A tall, elongated figure was frozen in place, its length stretching across the windshield. Skinny, covered in a sort of dark green armor, including an odd, sharply pointed headcrest, splotched with spots of black all over its body. Three toed, almost talon-like feet, large green fanned out wings attached to its back, and a long, outstretched tail with a sharp, thin needle at the end. A curved, orange beak in the center of its face, angled into a sinister grin, and cold, cruel, piercing pink eyes, the pupils slit vertically, similar to that of a cat's.

Their maniacal stare sent chills up and down her body, like millions of sharp needles were sticking into her light flesh.

They were so cold...So lifeless...

So hollow... And yet so filled with malice...

And just as abruptly, time reestablished itself, and the creature's green blur flashed past the front window as fast as lightening.

Cyris had only a moment to draw a breath into her lungs, before a tremendous shock wave ripped through the air, sending a roar of wind to crack loudly in her ears, and the tiny Saturn was blasted backward, spinning wildly along the slippery road.

Laura's hands grasped at the steering wheel wildly, jerking it every which-way, attempting to regain control.

She was screaming; Cyris was screaming; the world passed by behind the windows as blotches of color—unrecognizable—swirling and twisting.

Suddenly, there was a harsh bump on the underneath side of the car, and forcefully the Saturn came to a jerky stop.

Cyris was having difficulty getting her breath, her heart rate already past catching up to.

But it wasn't just from the car going out of control—it was that...that _thing_...

Absolute terror chilled the marrow in her bones, feeling cold all over.

That thing would be coming for them...

"S...s-son of a _bitch_..." Laura panted. "What the _Hell_ was _that_?" She jerked up her head, looking frantically around them.

"Hah, these pitiful_ humans."_

Cyris's breath caught in the back of her throat.

What was that...? A voice...inside my head...?

"So easily disoriented, by a feeble blast like that. Ha! It is to laugh."

The car began to lightly shake, the steering wheel vibrating beneath Laura's fingers. Slowly, the woman lowered her eyes down onto her niece in the seat next to her.

Cyris was trembling, almost twitching. Her head was drooped down, hunched forward in the seat. Her hazel eyes were wide, her pupils shrunken down to mere specks. A shaky, cracked breath shook from her throat, her teeth chattering loudly.

"...Cyris? Are you—"

"I shall make light work of them..."

"DRIVE!!" Cyris hollered out, lurching forward as she screamed out her command.

Laura instinctively thrust her foot down onto the gas. A loud screech of rubber, and the old car thrust forward, zooming hurriedly down the road.

Not even five seconds had passed by, before a gigantic oil tanker flipped across their path, spewing gasoline and glass and metal through the air, thundering as it rolled.

Laura swerved the wheel, avoiding the tanker, and the car spun wildly off the road, and nose first into a ditch.

They were stuck.

"Shit! Oh _shit_!" Laura said frantically, stamping her foot on the gas pedal, causing the engine to whine. "C'mon damn it, c'mon!"

But now Cyris could see... It was playing in front of her eyes...almost like she was there that very moment...

"P-p-please! Don't kill me! I don't wanna die!"

The smile on his curved beak spread further, his eyes thinning. He took another step forward, letting out a squeak.

The trucker stumbled over the unattached bumper of his tanker, and hastily scrambled back to his feet.

Skreeket skreeket

Frantically, the trucker began to flee away, across the debris and wreckage from his vehicle.

Skeeeeket-shrett

In a flash, he'd jumped high into the air, fanning his green wings outward. His tail swerved forward, and, tip aimed, began to race toward its target.

With a stomach-lurching sound, the stinger hit its mark, between the poor man's shoulder blades.

And then the scream—a scream of pure agony—echoed, shattered through her mind—deafening.

Cyris let out a shrill, ear-piercing scream, seemingly loud enough to shatter the glass of the windows around them.

"Hm?" His head snapped up. His pink, slit eyes shot a glance over his shoulder, and were drawn toward a blue Saturn off the road, laying in a ditch.

Cyris continued to scream, louder and louder, her voice becoming horse.

Quickly, Laura clamped her hands over her niece's mouth, cutting off her cries, and forcefully yanked her over into her seat, hugging her against her chest.

"Shh, shh," Laura whispered sternly, but soothingly, her hands still closed tightly over the child's mouth.

Cyris was shivering; short gasps slipped out her lips. Hot tears trickled down her cheeks, and ran over Laura's hands.

His eyes still focused onto the small car, he yanked his long tail out of the clothes and other remnants of his victim, turning fully around.

And slowly, almost cautiously, he began to make his way toward the old blue car. The smirk again came to his lips, his eyes alight with the craving for another kill.

"Hah! _Yeeess_...soon you will be at my grasp, and become a part of—"

He blinked, and swerved his head to face the sky to the far east.

"...Piccolo..."

He narrowed his cat-like eyes in agitation. "_Hmph_. Does that idiotic Namek actually think he'll catch _me_?"

The monster turned, his tail twisting and curling around behind him, with a certain anxiousness.

"Well, he _is_ seeming to do a _spiteful_ job at preoccupying me from my tasks," he sneered. "I suppose my time is done here..."

That being said, he fanned out his green splotched wings, and, with a loud buzz, speedily flew off into the dark, cloudy sky.

Cautiously, Laura released her hold on her frightened niece, putting her hands around her small shoulders.

Cyris drew a deep, shaky breath into her lungs, wiping her tears away from under her eyes.

"Cyris, what happened?" Laura questioned, placing a hand on her green and black streaked hair. "Are you OK hon?"

Cyris's lip quivered. "I saw..."

Quickly the memories of the truck driver came to her. His frantic flee away from the monster that had pursued him, and killed him...

It _killed_ him...

Laura cocked her head slightly. "What did you see?"

"...Nothing," Cyris answered blandly. "It was nothing. I just got creeped out, that's all."

Laura curled her lip, lowering her eyelids. "You're a terrible liar, you know. You got _that_ much from _me_—I can tell."

Her young niece groaned, a little agitated. "Fuh, Laura. _Really_, it was _noth_—"

Again, like when the creature had appeared across the windshield, that weird sense suddenly kicked in. She could sense someone's aura...someone's approaching presence. No, there were _two_ of them, coming from the east...

And they were coming straight this way.

Laura blinked. "Cyris?"

Abruptly, Cyris wrestled out of her aunt's grip, and before Laura could recover her senses enough, the girl kicked open the door across from her, and scrambled out of the car.

With a burst of adrenaline she didn't even realize she had, Cyris hastily ran—half climbing in a few places because it was quite steep—up the hillside. She hoisted herself up and over the guardrail, and went out into the middle of the silent highway, where she stopped.

Panting, she searched the skyline over, almost frantically.

Then, her sharp eyes caught sight of two large, white streaks zooming through the sky overhead—perfectly visible due to the hazy, black sky above them.

She watched them keenly as they flew high overhead her.

Slowly, absently, as she stared at the longer of the two, one simple word slipped past her lips.

"Piccolo...?"

Before she had any time to think about what she'd just said, the two streams of white picked up speed, and in a flash they had disappeared into the horizon.

"Wha... W-wait!!" Cyris called, running after them a few steps. "Come back! We need...help down here..." Her words trailed off, and were swept silently away with the pouring rain.

She stared off into the dark skyline, giving an almost disappointed sigh.

"Cyris Ellena McCoy!!"

Cyris whipped around, and saw her aunt stomping up the hillside, a furious look on her face.

"...Uh-oh.."

Immediately her angry gaze fell upon her young, now completely drenched niece in the middle of the road. "Cyris!! What the Hell are you _doing_?!"

Cyris blinked at her, cocking her head to the side. "Huh? I...uh..."

What _was_ she doing out here? She hadn't given any thought to why she'd suddenly raced out here—it was just...instinct, maybe?

Heh, it was worth a shot...

"Umn, I, er...I dunno..." Cyris replied meekly, lowering her eyes away from her approaching aunt.

So much for instinct...

Laura, now sopping wet as well, sloshed up to her niece, glowering down at her. "_Look_ at you! You're soaked! C'mon, get back into the car before you get sick!"

With that, Laura turned, and began to trudge back to her tiny car in the ditch, expecting her niece to follow.

Quickly, Cyris took a few steps, but stopped again, and absently looked back at the black horizon.

"...Piccolo..."

"CYRIS!!!"

Cyris jumped in her spot, and scurried off of the highway and back to the car.

* * *

"_Damn_ this stupid rain." 

With numb, chilled fingers, Cyris brushed back a few strands of wet green-black hair from her brown eyes. She flexed her fingers some after doing so, her knuckles white.

Though, she shrugged it off, and continued onward on her desolate journey.

Cyris had been traveling for a good four hours now. The Sun had begun set on her while she'd sneaked back into her aunt's apartment to gather some of her things, and by this point had already set long ago.

The sky was almost pure black, the stars hidden from view by the bulbous, dark rain clouds overhead, which poured down more than enough water than what was worth.

Cyris scowled.

"Man, this is taking _way_ too long—traveling on foot," she said grumpily, her sneakers sloshing through the wet grass along the highway, her soles wheezing out water with every step. "Flying would be a heckuva lot _easier_..."

She stopped for a moment, contemplating on that thought.

"Come to think of it, why _aren't_ I flying?" She looked up to the sky as she asked her question, and was given an answer when a rather large water droplet splashed into her eye.

"Riiiiiight, cuz it's _raining_," she grumbled, wiping the water away from her eye.

That's the reason she'd stopped, after all. Flying in a heavy rainstorm such as this was no fun—only slowed you down, and it was hard enough to see through it while you were on the ground.

Not to mention that if static built up you'd be a perfect lightening rod...

Cyris growled underneath her breath, adjusting her backpack on her shoulder. "Stupid, damned, bothersome, idiotic, weak rain..."

She blinked. "What am I _saying_?! Fricken rain!! That's what I'm supposed to say--_fricken_ rain!"

Adjusting the backpack strap on her shoulder, and grumbling further about her strange new vocabulary, Cyris began to stomp her way through the tall, wet grass.

A few strands of wet, clumped hair fell out of place, and into her eyes.

"Damn hair," Cyris growled. She stopped again, and lifted up her head to brush the strands away.

Then, the corner of Cyris's eye caught the text of a sign as she looked up, and she froze, her eyes instantly gluing to it.

Route 56

She continued to stare at the sign, her head cocking slightly to the side. For some reason...that sign seemed distantly familiar...

Suddenly, abruptly, a rush of images flashed in front of her eyes...

_  
  
A tall, elongated figure was frozen in place, its length stretching across the windshield. Skinny, covered in a sort of dark green armor, including an odd, sharply pointed headcrest, splotched with spots of black all over its body. _  
  
Cyris had only a moment to draw a breath into her lungs, before a tremendous shock wave ripped through the air, sending a roar of wind to crack loudly in her ears, and the tiny Saturn was blasted backward, spinning wildly along the slippery road. 

She was screaming; Cyris was screaming; the world passed by behind the windows as blotches of color—unrecognizable—swirling and twisting.

_  
  
Three toed, almost talon-like feet, large green fanned out wings attached to its back, and a long, outstretched tail with a sharp, thin needle at the end. A curved, orange beak in the center of its face, angled into a sinister grin... _  
  
Cyris's lip quivered. "I saw..." 

Laura cocked her head slightly. "What did you see?"

"...Nothing," Cyris answered blandly. "It was nothing."  
  
_  
  
...And cold, cruel, piercing pink eyes, the pupils slit vertically, similar to that of a cat's._

Their maniacal stare sent chills up and down her body, like millions of sharp needles were sticking into her light flesh.

  
  
Then, her sharp eyes caught sight of two large, white streaks zooming through the sky overhead—perfectly visible due to the hazy, black sky above them. 

She watched them keenly as they flew high overhead her.

Slowly, absently, as she stared at the longer of the two, one simple word slipped past her lips.

"Piccolo...?"

_  
  
They were so cold...So lifeless... _

So hollow... And yet so filled with malice...

  
  
And as quickly as they had come, the images stopped, and were replaced with black—they disappeared from her memory entirely, only a blank space remaining. 

Almost like...the memories were being _blocked_...

Cyris wavered on her feet, blinking profusely. She brought a hand up to her head, and rested it over her ear.

These images weren't the same as the usual ones—the ones of the boy Gohan and Cell. They seemed to be...from her past....

Before the Cell Games...

Cyris suddenly noticed the rain dripping down above her ceased, a darker silhouette casting over her eyes. She jerkily whipped her head around, going halfway into a fighting stance, when she realized it was only an umbrella looming over her.

"Oh, beg my pardon, miss."

Holding the umbrella in delicate fingers stood a woman. A very tall, thin woman, with light lime green hair, curled up above her ears, a brown hair clip at the side. Her clip matched the dazzling amber-brown color of her heavily lashed eyes, which were warm and welcoming.

Cyris cocked her brow, pulling out of her awkward stance. "Umn...do I know you?"

The woman gave a small, caring smile. "I don't believe so, no."

Cyris furrowed her brows further, absently thinning her lips in curiosity.

The woman chuckled. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to seem rude. I just saw you along the side of the road in this terrible rain, and thought I might give you a lift as far as you need to go."

She thinned her eyes slightly, smiling sweetly. "If you'd like."

"Huh," Cyris said, curling back some of her sopping wet hair behind her ear.

A nice, warm car sounded pretty inviting right about now. Her clothes were soaked through and through, even her heavy jacket she had on was completely drenched.

That and this lady seemed pretty nice. She wasn't sure why, but she also seemed kind of familiar to her... Either way, she doubted a mere human like her could give her any trouble.

"Uh, well, if you don't mind your stuff getting wet, I guess..."

"Well good then," she replied. She turned, and walked back to her black civic that was only a few feet away.

"Uh... Is it just me, or am I attracting _way_ too much attention now adays...?" Cyris commented, scratching the back of her head.

With a sigh, Cyris walked back to the car herself, and hopped into the passenger door.

* * *

"Mmm...good chicken..." Goten mumbled, turning over onto his back. One of his leg went askew, and he absently kicked his sleeping brother square in the jaw. 

"Get away llamas!!" Gohan screeched, and sat up with a start, looking around frantically. After he realized he was still only in his bedroom, and not being attacked by rabid llamas, he looked down to his younger sibling who was now sprawled out in his lap.

"Ahhh, I love you chick-ken...n..." Goten said in his sleep, putting his hand in Gohan's face, and grinned broadly. "Hee hee…."

Gohan lowered his eyelids halfway, sighing. Gently, he rolled Goten out of his lap, and back onto his own mat on the floor.

The half-saiyan yawned, lying back into his nice warm sheets. He closed his eyes, ready to drift back into slumber....

When a loud _KNOCK KNOCK_ quickly came to his sensitive ears.

Again he bolted back upright, his eyes wide open. He listened silently, with held breath for the sound to return. But when it didn't return, he only sighed, and laid back down.

KNOCK KNOCK

Gohan's eye cracked open, the corner of his mouth twitching. This time he only dismissed the noise, and rolled over onto his side with an irritable groan.

He was just falling back to sleep, when...

KNOCK KNOCK

A great twitch went up Gohan's spine, and he flung his sheets off of him and clear across the room.

"All right, all right! I'm coming!" he said, fuming, and stomped his way out of the room and downstairs.

"Tsk… I'm beginning to think that no one's going to answer at this rate…" complained one of the two tired, wet police officers waiting outside House 439, East District. She curled back come of her now sopping wet blond hair from in front of her eyes, and gave an agitated sigh. 

"Yeah…It seems that way," her partner muttered, lowering his large, box-shaped eyebrows below his yellow-framed tinted glasses. "We've been out here for almost a half an hour in this storm on this blasted doorstep. …Maybe we should give up for now and come back later. We could go get some hot coffee and some of that spicy curry bread…?"

Kitsurubami, the first officer, gave her partner an annoyed glare. "Mr. Amarao! You should try ignoring your stomach and sticking to the assignment! Think about what the _chief_ would say if we ditched our job for _curry bread_!."

Amarao raised one of his large eyebrows at her absently. "He'd say we should've picked some up for him, too."

Kitsurubami stared at him absently for a moment, her angry expression melting away.

"E…eyebrows…"

"…Huh?"

At that moment, the front door slowly opened. The head of an extremely tired looking seventeen-year-old boy with spiky jet-black hair, large circles under his eyes, and yellow Hamtaro boxers poked out of the small opening. He had a slightly agitated look on his face, and the corner of his mouth was twitching. "H-hullo…?" he said through a yawn, scratching the back of his head.

Kitsurubami straightened, clearing her throat. "Sorry to disturb you so late at night sir… Eh, rather so _early_ in the morning, I suppose," she quickly apologized. "Does Son Gohan live here?"

"Uh....Yeah, he does. I'm Son Gohan."

"Well, we've come to ask you a few questions. May we come in?"

Gohan opened the door wider, and stepped back to allow the two police officers inside out of the pouring rain.

Amarao yanked at the bottom of his sopping wet black jacket and rung out, what seemed like, a cup full of water onto the doormat.

Kitsurubami glared out the corner of her eye at him, but ignored it and looked back to the tired, half-asleep boy. "I am Officer Kitsurubami. This is my partner Mr. Amarao."

"Pleasure," he said, readjusting his bizarre glasses on his nose.

"We're here to ask you a few questions, sir," Kitsurubami continued, pulling a small, folded up piece of paper out of one of her back pockets, and handed it to Gohan. "We just need to know if you've seen or heard anything regarding the whereabouts of this girl within the last twelve hours."

With fumbling fingers, Gohan unfolded the paper, and about dropped it in shock.

The brown, slanted eyes. The green and black streaked hair...

"_Cyris_..." Gohan said absently.

"Yeah, that's right. Uhh…Cyris _McCoy_, wasn't it?" Amarao said questioningly, looking to his younger and much prettier fellow. She nodded, and he continued. "She disappeared from her school earlier today, from the Health Clinic. Sightings say that not long after that she was spotted with two acquaintances of hers in Orange Star City, and after some sort of disturbance was seen entering her aunt's apartment only a bit later."

"So…you're saying…that she's _run_ _away_?" Gohan sputtered, now fully awake at these surprising upbringings.

"Seems that way," Amarao replied, lowering his eyebrows. "There was said to have been a bit of an incident at the school—someone said you were involved. You think you might know anything about where she might be, or any leads?"

Gohan looked up from the creased photo, and stared blankly at him for a couple of seconds. "…Eyebrows."

"Beg your pardon?"

Gohan quickly shook his head. "Uh… Nu-uh, no. Well, she certainly didn't _say_ anything to me about running off anywhere, anyway..."

"Thank you for your time," Kitsurubami said, nodding in return. She turned and opened the door to leave. "Please don't hesitate to notify us if you hear of anything, all right?"

"Oh, and nice boxers, by the way," Amarao commented, giving the tired teen a mischievous smirk, and Kitsurubami stifled a snort before throwing her partner a quick look.

Gohan's cheeks quickly flushed, and with a, "Heh, well....they, uh...aren't mine...Eheh…?", he turned and closed the door.

He stood there for a moment, contemplating on the moment's discussion.

Cyris ran away? But why? Did it have anything to do with what had happened at school? For some reason something didn't feel quite right about all of this.

Especially since Cyris...had mumbled something about _saiyans_...

Another yawn escaping his lips, and Gohan finally realized how incredibly _tired_ he was. Cracking his neck, he trudged slowly back upstairs.

As soon as the sound of his older brother's footsteps vanished from ear, Goten slowly crept out from around the shelf he'd been hiding behind nearby the front door.

"Cyris...is missing...?"

* * *

Weeeelll…did anyone guess who those two police officers were in that last scene? Didja didja didja? grins broadly Those who are fans of FLCL should know! Ehem…but anyhell, there's it for the revised-revised version of Chapter 10! Hope you all enjoyed it. Now, off to edit more of those chapters! cracks knuckles and sets off to work 

-KASH


	11. Chapter 11

****

Warning!: The rating on this fic is currently a PG-13 rating, mostly for language. It may, as a result of further foul language and extreme graphic violence in later chapters, be moved up to a R rating. So please, this fic is for the mature (preferably ages 15 and up). If you cannot _take_ the contents of this fic, or if you have any problems with it whatsoever—take it up with me, KASH, the author—not the FF.net staff.

  
  
Author's Note: Not a lot of re-editing going on with this chapter, but there was some. As I said, it was probably easier to just get the most recent chapters out of the way first, then work backwards. Heh. As always, and so I don't get anyone pissed off at me, I don't own DragonBall Z. It's copyrighted by Akira Toriyama (whom everyone who's a DB fan of any kind should hug if the opportunity was present. ;p), and the English Dub copyright of Funimation (who we're all glad picked Dameon Clarke to play good ol' Seru-kun). Characters such as Cyris, Nayome, Laura, Yukio, Valerie, Meah, or anyone else you don't recognize from the original series of DragonBall Z are copyright of me, KASH. And I will make it a point to hunt you down and mutilate you if you ever do a thing with them without my permission. Thank you, and good night, folks.

* * *

"My Lady...?"

Slowly, the cloaked, hooded figure stepped forth from the dark shadows.

No command returned from her mistress standing across the room from her. She continued to stare deeply out into the endless abyss of her space-like realm, hidden in shadow.

"My Lady... I bring news of the possessor..."

Her mistress stirred slightly at this, but did not turn to face her. "...What are her current developments?"

"It doesn't look well, my Lady," she replied solemnly, bowing her head slightly. "I was forced to return from my duties..."

"Forced?" her short mistress replied quickly, almost sharply. "...Something happened, then..."

"Yes. ...The possessor is loosing control. I am afraid to report that the barriers you placed are breaking away more rapid—"

"I know, Nayome," the short kai interrupted, finally turning around to face her loyal servant. Her piercing, black eyes filled with concern, and worry. "But tell me what happened while on your patrol."

"Yes, my Lady," Nayome said, bowing further to her mistress. "I am not entirely sure, but she claims to loose control of her actions, and find herself in locations where she was not previously. She is becoming much more aggressive, and violent."

There was a long, silent pause.

"She was almost made to kill an innocent, Mistress Sita..."

Another long, silent pause followed.

Sita just continued to stare at her servant, her eyes narrowed, and a grim look on her lavender face.

"...Mistress Sita?"

"We can do nothing, now."

"What?"

Sita narrowed her eyes further at her servant, and snapped, "You contradict me, in such a decision?"

"Forgive me, my Lady," Nayome said abruptly, dropping to her knees and looking down at the floor.

"…There is no longer anything we can do for her," Sita continued grimly, turning away from Nayome to stare back into the endless abyss of space. "She is accepting it."

"Accepting it, my Lady?"

"Yes... It has managed to fully corrupted her, to adapt into his being, his _mindset_… We have no time to act influentially. Only the slightest push it to be needed, and she will be lost."

"But...my Lady... I don't understand... Why do we not try harder to prevent this?"

A bitter silence quickly followed.

"...My Lady?"

* * *

Gohan did another loop-de-loop in the air, his red Saiyaman cape swirling gracefully around him in the strong winds of the high sky. He had been out scouting around for almost 3 and a half hours now—and was beginning to feel slightly discouraged.

How hard _was_ it to find some girl anyway? Given the amount of time, plus the average speed of a human, and add that to the distance probably covered....

Ah Heck, he didn't know what he was doing. He was just going on pure instinct, really.

Gohan sighed in exasperation, flying along with his back facing the ground. For some reason, he just couldn't get that whole deal with the cops from last night...

With fumbling fingers, Gohan unfolded the paper, and about dropped it in shock.

The brown, slanted eyes. The green and black streaked hair...

"Cyris..." Gohan said absently.

"Yeah, that's right. Uhh…Cyris McCoy_, wasn't it?" Amarao said questioningly, looking to his younger and much prettier fellow. She nodded, and he continued. "She disappeared from her school earlier today, from the Health Clinic. Sightings say that not long after that she was spotted with two acquaintances of hers in Orange Star City, and after some sort of disturbance was seen entering her aunt's apartment only a bit later."_

"So…you're saying…that she's run away_?"_

"But why _would_ she run away?" he questioned slowly, staring off into the horizon past his booted feet. Gohan sighed again, rubbing the back of his neck.

He didn't know why...but he just felt like...he _had_ to find her.

* * *

"Nyaah..."

Sheepishly, Cyris opened her eyes, wincing slightly at first from the bright, mid-day sun. She shielded her eyes in a futile attempt for her eyes to adjust, grumbling.

"Damned idiotic sun. Since when was it so _bright_ at six in the..."

Cyris lowered her hand, blinking, and quickly gazed at the watch on her wrist.

"Holy _Hell_!" she exclaimed, sitting up with a jolt. "It's 8:30!! Crap, I'm late for sch—"

She stopped in mid-sentence, as the realization donned on her. "Oh...right..." she sighed, somewhat sadly, and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands. "Bloody Hell my brain never works... Stupid nightmares screwing with my mind..."

Stiffly, Cyris slowly got to her feet, stretching out her arms in the air in the process. She scratched the back of her neck absently, staring deeply into the deep red brick wall in front of her. Her eyes followed the lines of white plaster between them absently, tracing a pathway as she stretched.

She stopped, her fingers freezing. She blinked, and realization came to her again.

"Wait a minnit... Wasn't I in a _car_?"

With a surge of adrenaline she wasn't aware she currently had, Cyris whipped around, scanning the area around here wildly; she hastily pulled her hands in close into a karate defensive stance as she did so, purely out of forced habit.

After a moment, Cyris relaxed, and pulled out of her stance. Quickly, she cursed herself for letting her guard down so much that she would fall asleep in someone else's car—not to mention it was someone she didn't even _know_.

...Whoever that lady was...

But the real question, was how did she get _here_?

Cyris heaved an agitated sigh. "Let's see... one, two, three... I think this makes the _fourth_ time I've woken up somewhere that I wasn't before..." She lifted up her blue backpack off the dirty pavement, and swung it over her shoulder.

"God this sucks..." she muttered, and walked out of the alleyway, and into the street.

"Uhh....this is going nowhere _really_ fast..." Gohan sighed, drooping his head. "I don't even know why I came out here—it's not like I'm gonna be able to find _one_ person! And how do I even know she even came out _this_ way..." he continued to ramble on to himself, putting his hand on the side of his face, and closed his eyes.

"Not even the _cops_ had any idea where she was—so how am _I_ supposed to fair out? It's like searching for a needle in a haystack!"

He lowered his head further. "I'm never gonna find her..." he sighed in exasperation, and opened his eyes.

There. _Right_ there—miles directly below of him—his eyes caught sight of a head full of green and black streaked hair, walking down on of the main sidewalks; a blue backpack slung across their shoulder as well.

He blinked, his mouth falling open slightly. Slowly, a small smile cracked his lips, letting out a chuckle. Quickly, the grin spread the length of his cheeks, and he began laughing almost like a lunatic.

"That's her!" he said triumphantly, raising a fist into the air. "I can't believe it—I found her! Hahaha!"

Without another moment's hesitation, Gohan put in a large burst of speed, and angled himself down to the ground.

"Hey, watch it bub!" Cyris snapped irritably as a tall man with deep green hair and of great girth shoved past her, nearly crushing her into the street wall.

"Watch yourself!" he snapped back, narrowing his yellow eyes at her, and continued on without a second thought.

Cyris let out a growl, glaring knives into the back of his skull. "Stupid jerk," she seethed under her breath.

Despite how tempting it was, Cyris decided it the best to do nothing—not wise to try and crack open someone's skull in public, after all.

And it was _awfully_ crowded.

"Hmm...where am I, anyway?" she said to herself—mostly trying to get the still remaining thought of killing that _bastard_ guy out of her mind—scanning the sidewalk. She picked her head up, and took a quick look over at a large, blue sign looming above her.

A big, smiling panda bear, waving its paw in the air, sitting next to the large, white print:

"_Welcome to Nikkeitown!_"

"Uh-huh..." Cyris nodded. "OK, that answers my question..." She looked away from the sign, and put her foot out, ready to take a step.

"..Wait..."

Jerkily, she froze in place, her eyes widening slightly. She turned her head around, and looked back up to the sign again.

"Nikkeitown..." she said barely above a whisper, as her eyes kept running over the large, white lettering.

For some reason...this place...it suddenly seemed...distantly familiar...

"Hey! Look over there!"

Cyris's head immediately snapped away from gazing at the sign towards a woman nearby in the crowd. She was pointing excitedly toward the sky, making a fuss.

"Look, look! Something's flying this way!"

"_Flying_...?" Cyris said vaguely, turning and looking to the direction the woman was pointing—as were a few other people.

"Hey yeah—I see!" hollered a man, stepping up to the woman's side.

The people traveling along the street began to hastily gather together, Cyris being shoved into the middle of it.

"Hey—stop shoving me dammit!" she snapped as a small, thin woman tried pushing her way past her, being crunched into the back of a tall man in the process. "Ack!"

But before she could throw a retort, a ping shot through her thoughts. Her senses...they were picking up a familiar, oncoming aura...

"It's Saiyaman!" she blurted out suddenly, and clamped her hands over her mouth to shut herself up.

But it was too late—everyone around her buzzed with excitement.

"It's Saiyaman?! Yeah yeah—it _is_ him!"

"He's a _real_ super hero, you know it?! Supposed to be super strong!"

"Wow! Saiyaman's coming straight this way!"

But... Man, there's no reason a "hero_"—which I use _loosely_—like him would just fly down into a crowd of people on the street,_ Cyris thought to herself, lowering her eyelids in mild interest—for the moment ignoring the fact that she was being shoved into another person.

But then a thought slowly crept into her mind.

Unless...he'd be looking_ for someone..._

"_Shit_!" Cyris cursed, hunching over into the crowd.

"Shit shit _SHIT_! This is _bad_! Laura's enough of a fricken case _without_ having to worry about me—she probably called _in_ that goof-ball to _drag me back_! _Damn_ it!

Quickly Cyris pulled the hood of her coat over her head, just in time to hear a loud, obnoxious "Good day, loyal citizens!"

Promptly, the crazily adorned Saiyaman landed a few feet away in the clear part of the street, giving a little wave.

"..._Crap_..."

Instantly, the crowd rifted for a fraction of a second, and imploded upon itself again. The people eagerly in an animalistic manner began to push their way toward the hero, yelling and shouting with excitement.

Poor Cyris could do nothing but be pulled along with the crowd helplessly—and poor Saiyaman about got mauled over by the force of the surrounding crowd.

"It's Saiyaman!" The crowd went wild, people trying to shove their way up to the great hero.

"Oo! Hey Saiyaman!" said a teenage girl, edging her way forward to him, holding a marker in her hand. "I'm Bonnie-Shae, and I think you're _sexaay_! Can I have your autograph? You can sign me wherever you want!"

Even visible through his dark visor, you could see the crimson blush sweep onto Gohan's cheeks.

"Uh...well I..."

"Saiyaman! Saiyaman!! Can I take your picture?!"

FWASH!!

"Gaah!" Gohan practically shrieked, putting his hands over his eyes, not being able to see from the bright flash of the camera.

"What are you here for, Saiyaman? After a gang of bank robbers? Cut throats? Illegal chinchilla ranchers??"

"Illegal..._what_??"

"Gah! Dammit, get out of my wa—aggh!" Cyris was practically clawing at the air, desperately trying to get out of the rushing crowd, which was pushing her closer and closer to the bucket-headed hero.

"P-Please stand aside!" The Great Saiyaman said, slightly pleadingly. "I'm on very important business! I'm supposed to be looking for someone!"

Crap, so he is _looking for me!_ Cyris thought, and tried even more desperately to edge her way through the oncoming rush without knocking a few people to the next county in the process.

But it was no use, for the giant mesh of people began to force their way even closer to the hero at his announcement of activities.

"Ooo! Who are you looking for?!"

"Is it the chinchilla ranchers?!"

"Ahahaaaa..." Cyris practically sobbed at the futility of her efforts. "Let me outa thiiis!"

Finally, Gohan worked up his gall, and said demandingly, "That's enough!! Please, all of you stand aside at once—you're meddling and keeping me from my activities!"

At last, at his order, the crowd settled down, and instantly began to part.

The force of the crowd upon her now diminished caught Cyris completely off-guard. She snagged the edge of the rubber from her sneaker on the rough sidewalk, and she toppled backwards on one foot. Cyris spun around, and before she had the chance, forcefully bumped into someone.

"Oh, excuse me miss," came Saiyaman's voice. "Really sorry about that..."

Cyris's breath caught in the back of her throat.

"Kaaa....meeeee..."

A child's voice—echoing out in her head...

"...Haaa....meeeeeeeeeee...."

Cyris's blood suddenly ran as cold as ice... Her magenta eyes slowly glazed over, and her outside senses dulled...

"HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The ground felt like it dropped out from beneath her feet, and she was engulfed in black...

And in that instant, time froze.

* * *

"NO CHANCE!! YOU HAVE NO CHAANCE!!" Cell roared, sending out another wave of his ki back toward Piccolo and the assembled Senshi.

They struggled to hold their ground against the thundering power, but, one by one they were sent flying backwards into the sky.

Gohan sneered at him, feeling himself being pushed backwards, the ground splitting off beneath him, a pile rocks building up behind his feet.

The whole Earth itself began to shake and quake, huge chunks of terrain breaking off and sent hurdling into the air; lightening streaks flashed through the sky, crackling through the dry dirt.

"Gohan...!" Piccolo said, struggling to sit up and watch the battle from the ground.

"We tried..." Tien groaned.

"We're all sorry Goku..." Krillin choked. "We all did our very best to be heroes like you but..."

"It wasn't enough," Yamcha finished.

"_SAY GOOD-BYE_!" Cell yelled triumphantly, sending out yet more of his ki from his seemingly endless power reservoir into his blast, beginning to further overtake the half-saiyan.

Victory nearly at his fingertips, Cell began to laugh evilly away.

Yes! This was it! The moment that he would finally _crush_ these pathetic weaklings and prove his Perfection once and for all! Dr. Gero's dreams of destruction were at hand; everything that Cell had worked these many years to gain would be realized NOW!

...Yet, he was so caught up in his thought of victory, that he failed to notice the blast...

It hit Cell hard in the small of his back, and his knees buckled beneath him. The wind was almost knocked free from his lungs.

WHAT?!

There—barely offset by the dark sky around him, hands in front of him in a technique stance, was none other than the infamous Saiyan Prince.

Cell whipped his head around, practically gawking at the Saiyan Prince. "_VEGETA_!!!"

A sudden holler of rage rang out through the thundering air, and Gohan flung out the remainder of his energy into his blast.

Cell had just enough time to turn his hot magenta eyes back, and saw Gohan's form stepping toward him, enveloped in radiant blue light, his one arm pulsing out more and more energy.

There was no time to regain control now... Gohan had the upper hand upon him...

Chips of his armor began breaking off around him, the white hot pain consuming his ever nerve ending.

"N...Noo.. This can't _be_…!" Cell said, as the blast ate away at him, feeling his arms and legs dissolve. "I'M PERFEEEECCTT!!!!"

And with those last words, his body crumbled into dust, and he was sent into darkness.

"_Yeessss_," Cyris said, her voice sharp, icy—emotionless.

The Great Saiyaman had moved past her, and continued down the sidewalk. Her lifeless eyes were transfixed on him.

Slowly, her lips parted, curling into a snarl.

"_He...is the one who _killedme_..._"

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open wide, her pupils shrinking down to small black specks, lost in a sea of crimson-pink.

A surge of power swept over her, through her veins, blinding her senses. Throwing her head back, she screamed out in rage to the sky, the ground giving way and exploding violently beneath her feet. Light enveloped her small figure, and quickly swept outward, swallowing up all that were in its path—they became lost to it—disintegrating.

Gohan had only a split of a second to look back at the giant wall of golden-white light as it raced toward him, and then he too, was consumed.

* * *

w00t. Well another re-editing is done now! And don't worry, I've picked up working on Chapter 12 also, and I've had to revamp a little on the original plot…but this fic _will go on_! w00t again! Heheh, well, I hope you all like the extra stuff I've added into the story, and the fixing uppers--I assure you it's an extreme pain, and very time consuming. I've had to go back and re-read over this in its entirety so far about 15 times over. Pain… Anyway, till next re-edit, bye!

-KASH


	12. Chapter 12

**Warning: The rating on this fic is currently a PG-13 rating, mostly for language. It may, as a result of further foul language and extreme graphic violence in later chapters, be moved up to a R rating. So please, this fic is for the mature (preferably ages 15 and up). If you cannot _take_ the contents of this fic, or if you have any problems with it whatsoever—take it up with me, KASH, the author—not the staff. The rating on this fic is currently a PG-13 rating, mostly for language. It may, as a result of further foul language and extreme graphic violence in later chapters, be moved up to a R rating. So please, this fic is for the mature (preferably ages 15 and up). If you cannot the contents of this fic, or if you have any problems with it whatsoever—take it up with me, KASH, the author—not the staff.**

* * *

Author's Note: Well damn. Haven't I sunken away into a little pit of darkness? Oi...I'm very sorry--moving has been Hell. Absolute HELL, says I! ...Yes, well... In the process of moving and being introduced into an entirely different environment, I have lost MUCH of my writer's spirit and inspiration. But do not fret--for I am diligently working toward gaining it back! Huzzah! And to my remaining reading audience--who have not left me despite the long gaps between my updates--we shall now pick up here where we left off. Viewer discretion is EXTREMELY advised--there will be LOTS of violence and bloodshed in this chapter. ...And, ehem, if you're a _Gohan_ fan (which I, of course, am not), I don't recommend it. No flames, pwease? It's not like I _kill_ him or anything! Ahh, I'm giving things away--bad me! Anyhell, please enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 11 :Fallout**

* * *

"_Yeessss_," Cyris said, her voice sharp, icy—emotionless. 

Slowly, her lips parted, curling into a snarl.

"_He...is the one who _killedme"

"Yeah, that's right... You haven't seen a girl around here that looks like this, have you?"

The old man reached forth with gnarled, shaky fingers, and delicately took the photograph from Saiyaman's gloved hand. He adjusted his thick spectacles on his hooked nose, squinting his eyes at the picture.

"Well, she's a very pretty girl, she is..."

Gohan blinked from behind his visor, a slight blush quickly sweeping onto his cheeks.

"Umn...well...I never really...thought about that..." he said in a sheepish voice, finding himself absently scratching the back of his neck.

...Wait a minute, what am I saying!

Quickly the blush on his cheeks darkened, furrowing his eyebrows downward. "Th-th-that's not important!" he practically hollered at the old man, who gave a small yelp. "Ha-Ha-Have you seen her or haven't you!"

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open wide, her pupils shrinking down to small specks amidst the light auburn, which was seeping over with an unnatural reddish tint.

"Now, now, young man... Don't get so flustered up," the old man said with a huff, puffing up his wrinkled cheeks. "It takes us old men time, just be a little patient..."

A surge of power swept over her, through her veins, blinding her senses.

A ping swept through Gohan's thoughts, and he whipped his head up.

And as soon as he did, and he saw, his blood instantly ran cold as ice.

There she stood, in the center of the sidewalk not too far away from him. Her hair was fluffed up, visible even from underneath the hood drawn over her head, crackling with fiery static in the dry air, and the pavement beneath her sneakers chipped and cracked.

But her eyes...they were the most terrifying eyes he'd ever seen...

Red...a hot glowing red.

A lifeless gaze, piercing, causing a chill to travel up his spine.

"_Cyris_..."

"Hmmm, nope, I can't say that I've seen this girl at all before," said the old man simply, straightening out his thick glasses with a shaky hand.

Throwing her head back, Cyris screamed out in rage to the sky, the ground giving way and exploding violently beneath her feet.

Gohan swerved himself back to the old man, and opened his mouth up wide. "GET OUT OF—"

Light enveloped her small figure, and quickly swept outward, swallowing up all that were in its path—they became lost to it—disintegrating.

Gohan had only a split of a second to look back at the giant wall of golden-white light as it raced toward him. He was barely able to lightly lift his boots off from the ground, before he too was consumed.

With a force that knocked the air out of his lungs, he was sent tumbling violently and blindly head over feet through the air, in a billowing vortex of chunks of concrete and rubble. It was no longer apparent to him what was down or up—the ground was below him, above him, then below him again, then swallowed up in the blinding radiance—the only sensation that was evident to him being the searing hot light all around him, eating at his clothes, his skin, his face.

Gohan became so distracted and unattached--his every thought being swallowed up within the fiery, white-hot pain all around him--that he failed to notice when the heat had vanished from around him, and he was left soaring unconsciously through the air.

For a small moment, he remained still, simply hanging sideways in mid-air. Then, slowly, his body limply dipped back, and he was sent spiraling downward in a nose dive.

Faster and faster Gohan's descent became, down faster toward the earth below him...

Distantly, a small dawning of realization came to him.

Falling...Falling at a speed that was bound to have broken the sound barrier by now... And the ground isn't exactly going to soften_ the_ fall

soften fall 

His eyes snapped open, and lurched himself to an abrupt stop in the air—and probably not a second too soon, for he was only about 100 or so feet above the ground.

After a few moments of regaining his composure, Gohan slowly swept his gaze back over the area; his eyes widened, and his mouth fell open, a look of absolute shock sweeping over his face.

Gone.

Nikkeitown was…completely _gone_. The entire area had been reduced to a large, flat crater--a deserted expanse of land.

"K…Kami-sama…"

Standing in the very center of the crater, out of his current sight, still sizzling with crackling ki static…senses buzzing…automatic.

Gohan watched as a few of the buildings that were lucky enough to remain intact fell back down to the ground, smashing with a loud boom back into the remnants of their lost city.

No conscience…lifeless…only initiative based on the one, drilling thought. The words that had plagued her for so long, that had consumed her now. The voices, the orders, telling her over and over what she really was--the program…

"Kill…Kill everything_…"_

everything 

Dust flared, and she was gone.

Gohan continued to stare in horror down at the area where the city had once been, the area now swept clean. "This can't be…" he said in fearful awe. "Everything's….gone… It's just _gone_!"

He failed to notice the brief ping of energy, as someone appeared behind him silently.

Suddenly something smashed into the side of his helmet, crushing it in like a mere tin can, and only a split second later he had collided into the ground. Gohan quickly stumbled to his feet, and tried moving his smashed helmet without success. Viciously ripped it apart and tossed it to his side, gasping and holding the side of his head as he began to feel warm blood run down the side of his face.

That blow took him completely off guard, his mind was spinning, there was a ringing in his ears…

A blur in front of him, and another sickening crack rattled through his skull. It was only in mid-flight that the sting of a hit to the face came to him, and he lurched his feet out, heels hitting the ground first. He ground them down into the rough terrain and came screeching to a stop.

Another blur, and suddenly he was doubled over. Before he could even comprehend what was happening, a fist had managed to slam into his center--this fist just happening to be attached to a figure that he was leaning over.

His eyes widened and his jaw fell open.

"C…Cyris…?"

Another crack as the other fist ground into his lower jaw, throwing his head back. He stumbled, and caught himself before his legs had the chance to allow him to fall backwards. His eyes spun around in his head, and came to rest on the small, lithe form of the girl he had just addressed. She was staring at him with a predatory gaze, fist still extended up into the air from her punch to his jaw.

What was going on? This was just…some girl he knew from school! How could she….why could she…

She raced at him, and drew back her fist to deliver another punch. "NO!" Gohan yelled, and lurched to the side, the fist sailing past him. He hopped off the ground and flew off to the side, trying to double back on her. He couldn't fight her. This was…insane!

"Cyris! What are you doing! You've got to stop this!"

In a split second she was in front of him, and he managed to block what would've been a lethal kick to his head. The next few moments were a wild scramble of punches and kicks and blocks. He was only concerned with trying to fend her off, which Gohan found to be a more than difficult task. Every blow was aimed at a lethal point, and every block he made was almost crippling to him. She hardly looked like a challenge, but every hit seemed to be a death blow, like being hit by a giant steel wall, just compacted into a convenient fist.

When it became apparent to him that he was losing his bearings, he felt a maddening dread creep over him. Cyris wasn't trying to beat him--she was trying to kill him.

"RRAAA!" With a furious jerk, Gohan managed to knock her fist away forcefully, and for just a split second, she paused. Out of pure saiyan instincts and fueled with mad adrenaline, he pounded his gloved fist into jaw.

Her head limply tilted to the side from the blow, a slight crack ensuing from the skew of her neck, and she was flung backwards through the air.

Gohan sped after her almost like a mad-man, rearing his hand far back past his shoulder.

Cyris's limp form just kept soaring along the surface of the cracked pavement, not shifting or veering off its course. She looked almost...unconscious.

Gohan flew up next to her, and with every possibly effort he had left in his body, he thrust his fist at her.

An abrupt flare of dust, and his fist made contact with the pavement.

"Whu--!"

His face was smashed down into the ground, a wave of blood and saliva spluttering forth from between his teeth and over his lips. Cyris, with one of his ankles in each of her hands, sped off along the broken, rubble-filled terrain, dragging Gohan behind her--he was being tousled through the rough and shattered ground like a limp rag doll, so disoriented the thought of reacting didn't even phase him. Gohan didn't have a second to even ponder what would happen to him next...

Cyris lurched to an abrupt stop and with a furious jerk flung Gohan upwards over her head into the air away from the ground, and then pulled him on his ankles right back down, in the same motion as one snapping a towel in the air, slamming him with a crack into the concrete. The rocky ground underneath him seemed like it exploded upon the impact, a flare of chunks and bits of rubble flying up around him, sinking downward into a slight crater. A wave of shattered glass rained down around him--one of the nearby building's windows had blown out from the force.

Gohan could only stare upward with shocked, almost terror stricken eyes, watching the shards slowly fall to the ground downward around him…

I...I can't...I can't m-move...I can't...feel anything...

Then, the pain struck.

It was almost like someone had fired an electro-shocked cannon ball right up his spine. It was so intense, so blinding, so excruciating, he couldn't even cry out in sheer agony. Everything, every nerve ending in his entire body burned with such intensity it was unreal. A loud ringing came to his ears, and everything in his shocked sights swept over with a dark blue tint... Then, slowly, he began to grow cold...the pain sweeping effortlessly away...and again, he could feel nothing, nothing at all…and he was growing sleepy…

Cyris walked backwards a ways, out of his vision, and then raced at him, kicking him in the side. Gohan was basically punted like a foot ball, and went spiraling through the air. He slammed into another building structure, and whatever supports still held it collapsed, and it crumbled and buried him.

For a brief time that almost felt like forever to him, there was darkness and silence. The cold feeling was slowly distilling over him again, and he felt at peace…

His body felt a tremendous jerk, and his eyes were suddenly staring up into the clear blue sky again. Cyris had an iron grip on the front of his hero suit, having ripped him out of the rubble with baffling ease. She turned, and dropped him on level earth. Gohan landed heavily on his back, giving an "Oof!" sound, but nothing else.

Cyris walked around him, stopping to stand at his side. She raised up a hand and spread open her fingers, aiming her palm at his head. A glowing ball of ki formed in her palm, and progressively began gathering power.

All Gohan could do was stare up into her eyes, completely helpless.

Her eyes, they were so cold...So lifeless...

So hollow... And yet so filled with malice...

The glowing orb began to expand in Cyris's hand, growing past the length of her fingertips...

Gohan could only continue to stare at her helplessly with hooded eyes, frozen with pain.

Why is she doing this...?

The glowing ball instantly dissipated with a small ping. Cyris slowly veered her eyes to her left, and instant met a kick to the side of her face. She was sent toppling through the rubble a good ways, kicking up all sorts of dust, and smashed through the wall of the ground floor of a building. The glass of the bottom seven floors erupted outward, showering the ground with glimmering shards.

A gruff voice came to ear, but it was familiar, and hinted concern. "Gohan, are you alright?"

"P…Pic…"

The Namek knelt down next to him, and pushed something into his mouth. "Try swallowing this."

Even through his blurred sense of conscious, Gohan understood. As best he could, he chewed on the senzu bean and swallowed it.

Piccolo stood, looking across the way as Cyris began to climb back up to her feet. Gohan soon followed, looking to his old teacher gratefully.

"Thanks…"

Piccolo continued to stare at Cyris as she stood there, the same lifeless look on her face, not making the slightest inkling to movement.

Gohan looked questioningly at his former trainer. "What is it?"

Piccolo narrowed his eyes, a look of dread on his face. "Somewhere...I've seen this girl before."

Gohan's looked at him incredulously. "You _know _her!"

Cyris levered her head up, and before either of them could blink, she threw her hand forward and fired a ki blast at them.

The two quickly dispersed, flying the opposite directions along the battleground as the abandoned blast left a large crater in the ground.

Cyris too dove to the side, shooting countless repetitious blasts after the both of them as she ran along.

But even if most of the blasts were surprisingly every time almost on their mark, they were meager. Gohan had plenty of effort to veer off to the side, letting the blasts zoom right past him, and Piccolo knocked them away swiftly.

Gohan was the first to land. He landed down on his left foot, and skidded a few inches backward, trying to regain his footing to prepare for another ki onslaught.

Cyris, however, lurched to a quick stop, a few yards away from him, for the meantime turning her attentions completely to the half-saiyan and letting the Namek decide for himself how to proceed. She put the back of her hands to her forehead, crossing her wrists over one another, standing up tall.

"Maaseeenkoooo…."

Gohan's eyes went wide. "What…But that's imposs--"

"HAA!"

An earth-shattering energy pulse ripped through the air, and the large ki wave that was in fact one of his own trusted techniques, sped its way right toward Gohan. With only a split second to spare, Gohan leapt out of the way; a large explosion soon followed, and the force of it sent him flying through the air, and he smashed torso down into the hard ground a few feet later.

They closed in on her motionless figure, closer and closer, their fists drawn back.

It was almost like watching them in slow motion. Every inch they took was like an eternity passing by, every shift in their muscles and tendons below their skins more completely evident to her eyes.

They grew closer, and closer still to her, their fists simultaneously being pulled backwards, gathering up force and energy for the blows...

Cyris's red irises moved upward, gazing forward aimlessly with an icy, piercing gaze.

Just as the punches were to be thrown, she disappeared into a puff of dust.

Gohan let out a shocked gasp, angling his fist into the ground, narrowly missing punching the Namekian right square in the face. Piccolo was forced to do much the same, toppling over onto his past pupil, and the two worked themselves into an odd knot on top of one another on the ground.

"Argh!" Gohan cried. "Wh-what happened!"

"I don't know, but get your elbow out of my eye!"

The two quickly managed to get back to their feet in a hurry, Gohan looking a little embarrassed, whereas Piccolo immediately began scanning the area.

"Where did she go!" he said with a growl.

"I don't know…her ki signature vanished…" Gohan said, starting to look around as well. "It's like she just disappeared…"

"Don't be ridiculous. No one is capable of that," Piccolo snapped.

"…Except Dad," Gohan replied simply.

"….Well, I suppose there's no more we can do…for now," Piccolo said, regaining his normal calm.

Gohan nodded slowly, and looked back to the ground.

Why…is this happening…?

* * *

Slowly, his eyes opened. 

His vision was extremely blurry, even though it was already hard enough to tell where he was because it was so incredibly dark.

...Where...am I? Where is this

He shifted stiffly, and sat up from the ground. He lifted his hands out from behind him, and numbly felt the rough, gravel-like texture underneath his fingertips.

Why would this be here?

This place...even though his vision was returning to him...he did not know this place.

Where was I before?

Before... All he remembered from before was Gohan, surrounded in an eerie blue glow, stepping ominously towards him, pain filling his entire body, blinding him--becoming swallowed up in light, to the point that...

...That he was _consumed_ within it...

...He had...died...?

And then…then there was that damned Other World—that "_H.F.I.L"_, or so they called it. Being sent there, with that _putrid_ pink sky, to _rot_ in that horrid cell with those other dim-whitted ex-villains…

...And then...there was _her_...

Sita...

Slowly, a horrid realization dawned on him, streaming like a chill through his veins. He instantly sprang to his feet, and brought his hands up to stare at them. They were small, pale, thin fingered, almost bony hands, with rough knuckles and nails that looked as though accustomed to being chewed at.

No...

He thrust them onto his face, patting his cheeks lightly with his fingertips, sweeping them over rounded ears--no longer large and box-shaped…

Slowly, he ran his fingers gently down his skinny neck, and began to run them down his chest, but stopped when they began to follow a foreign, protruding curve on either side.

Wait a minute…what is this _…?_

this 

He looked down, and in each hand was a strange soft lump, which were stuck to his front.

He felt the corner of his left eye twitch unconsciously, and another slightly sickening feeling hit the pit of his gut.

He had _breasts_.

Thunder rumbled loudly overhead, and almost on queue, a steady rain began to fall.

He burst out of the mouth of the alleyway, the rain beating, almost lashing, down into his face as he raced down the sidewalk. Why he started running, he didn't know. He just had to keep running, had to escape this twisted _nightmare_.

He rounded the corner, and narrowly avoided plowing right into a woman shielding her head with a newspaper as she scurried past him. Disoriented, he toppled a little bit on his feet, and managed to catch a foggy blur sweep past out the corner of his eye. He screeched to a halt, the flimsy shoes on his feet practically grinding into the pavement, and jerked around.

Instantly, he froze.

The large, frightful-eyed gaze of a young, scrawny, bedraggled looking girl met with his in the reflection of the dark store window. She was sopping wet from head to foot; the clothes she was adorned in were tattered and dirty, and her stringy black and green streaked hair was an unruly mess.

But it was her eyes...her eyes were the only familiarity to him... They were the same sharp, narrow, piercing magenta eyes that he remembered--that were staring back at him.

Slowly, he lifted his hand from his side, and pressed the fingertips against the cold surface of the dark, streaked glass--and watched in horror as the dull reflection in the window did exactly the same.

"No... This can't _be_..."

The words that escaped his throat were in an unfamiliarly high-pitched voice. The girl in the reflection's thin, light pink lips parted with each delicately spoken syllable, and remained slightly agape when he had ceased.

"I...I'm a...a _female_..."

* * *

Ahh-hum. Well, after about a whole year, this chapter is all said and done. Certainly took me long enough, eh? Yeah well, I apologize for that again. Like I've probably said numerous times over, everything has been a living hell. And again like always, I apologize to my reading audience for this inconvenience--and my utter laziness. Bleh I suck. But anyway, until next chapter, peace. 

-KASH


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